Jesus and the Oral Gospel Tradition

There are a number of splendid essays in this book, and anyone with any interest in the hottest topic in biblical scholarship should have this book. . Orality in Second Temple Judaism and in early Christianity has been a vibrant topic ever since Keebler's book "The Oral and Written Gospel". Aune discusses oral tradition in the Hellenistic world. Herodotus "the father of Greek history...appears to have derived roughly eighty percent of his information from oral sources" (p 77), showing the high regard the ancients had for oral information. Some of the ancients even shunned written traditions. For example, Pythagoreans "do not entrust their precepts to writing, but implant the memory...in living disciples: (p 88). Aune concludes that for the ancients, sometimes , "oral texts were considered more valuable than written texts" (p 97). A concept difficult for moderns to grasp. Closest in time to early Christianity are the Dead Sea Scrolls. Talmon argues that there "In the milieu which engulfed all varieties of Judaism art the turn of the era, a text was by definition an aural test, a spoken writing, a performed story " (p 150). The phenomenon of fusing oral and written texts "can be appreciated in the wording of ...the most fundamental exhortation tradited in the Bible: 'Hear O Israel'" (pp155-6). Hebrew fragments of Ben Sira have been found at Qumran. Also, "extensive Hebrew fragments of a Ben Sira manuscript were found on Masada" (p 141). Ben Sira, of course, insisted on an education in the Bible by all Jewish boys. And sure enough, a school was founded at Masada. Philip Alexander, in a very interesting essay, argues that "Rabbinism was scribal in character and its central institution was not the synagogue but the school...All...major texts of rabbinic Judaism... are school texts" ()p 162). This is not to say we have a clear picture of the Yeshivahs. Most information we have comes from a much, much later - mostly from the Middle Ages. "Memorization played an important role in instruction. The office of the Tanna - the professional memorizer of traditions - was ubiquitous" (p 165). Many aids were used in aiding in mnemonic devices such as the simanim Also, "Some tests were chanted or cantillated, or were studied to the accompaniment of swaying" (p 171). In fact, 'the mnemonic presentation of the Mishnah...(shows)rabbis have preserved verbatim the traditions which they received (p 176). Riesner in "Jesus as Preacher and Teacher" insists that "In my opinion, one cannot overstress the importance of the synagogal teaching system as a background for the formation and transmission of the Gospel tradition. The synagogues provided even in small Galilean villages such as Nazareth a kind of popular education system. Many Jewish men could write and write...in comparison with other peoples of the Roman empire the level of Jewish education was rather high." (p 191). Ellis argues that if there "was a proto-Gospel, a proto-Matthew (Zahn) is in my opinion more probable than a proto-Mark" ()p 311). He finds various passages common to both Matthew and Mark suggest that Matthew was the original. It appears to him that "the narrative patterns found in the Gospels were created quite early and in a closes-knit circle...The formulation of the Gospel narratives was made soon after the resurrection of Jesus, probably in the thirties, in and near Jerusalem" (p 333). Lots of interesting arguments, good writing, and fine research. I wish someone would reissue this book.