Jesus and the Oral Gospel Tradition (Academic Paperback)

Some also like to assert the “Telephone Game”. Telephone game: communicating a phrase by whispering from one person to the next in a linear fashion. Outside influences and interaction with any speakers, including the original speaker, is against the rules. The New Testament was not whispered in secret in a linear fashion from one person to the next so on and so forth. Its original speakers spoke publicly to crowds and original author’s were copied, distributed and read within the author’s lifetime. No rules limited outside influences and no rules limited interaction with others or the original eyewitnesses/authors/speaker. Even in later centuries scribes and monks created copies by referencing trusted authoritative manuscripts. They did not create a copy from a copy to make another copy and so on and so forth. Early ancient classical works were written primarily on papyrus, a highly perishable medium that hastened their decline. On the contrary Christians quickly transitioned to the codex (book format) of parchment and vellum, which were much more durable and suitable for the codex. [The Bibliographical Test](https://www.josh.org/wp-content/uploads/Bibliographical-Test-Update-08.13.14.pdf), Dr. Josh McDowell & Dr. Clay Jones Textual criticism is a tool bible scholars use to discern the accuracy of the originals; the more manuscripts; the more accurate they are in reconstructing the originals. The New Testament accuracy in context of textual criticism is 99.5% accurate. [The Reliability of the New Testament (Introduction)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=119&v=rml5Cif01g4) *”In contrast with other ancient classical works, the textual critic of the New Testament is embarrassed by a wealth of material. Furthermore, the work of many ancient authors has been preserved only in manuscripts that date from the Middle Ages (sometimes the late Middle Ages), far removed from the time at which they lived and wrote. On the contrary, the time between the composition of the books of the New Testament and the earliest extant copies is relatively brief. Instead of a lapse of a millennium or more, as is the case of not a few classical authors, several papyrus manuscripts of portions of the New Testament are extant that were copied within a century or so after the composition of the original documents.” — The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration: Bruce M. Metzger, Bart D. Ehrman ”Besides textual evidence derived from New Testament Greek manuscripts and from early versions, the textual critic has available the numerous scriptural quotations included in the commentaries, sermons, and other treatises written by the early Church fathers. So extensive are these citations that if all other sources for our knowledge of the text of the New Testament were destroyed, they would be sufficient alone for the reconstruction of practically the entire New Testament.” — The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration: Bruce M. Metzger, Bart D. Ehrman Q Source Scholars note that the similarities between Mark, Matthew, and Luke are too great to be coincidental. Applying source criticism they hypothesize written sources beneath the canonical Gospels. The [Q source](http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/q.html) is a hypothetical written collection of primarily Jesus’ sayings (aka logia.) Q is thought to be part of the common material found in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. According to this hypothesis, this material was drawn from the early Church's Oral Tradition. [The Jesus Tradition and Notebooks](http://www.patheos.com/blogs/euangelion/2012/03/the-jesus-tradition-and-notebooks/), Michael Bird. Disciple Notes/Logia Based on findings at Qumran, we know that Jewish pupils kept personal notes to source their rabbi’s teaching in scripture and as an aid to memorize the rabbi’s instruction. “… we should take seriously the possibility of notebooks being used to aide in the remembrance and transmission of Jesus’ teachings. … It is highly probable that notebooks were used by Jesus’ own disciples and by later adherents in the early church to assist in memory retention by functioning as an *aide-mémoire*.”” Michael Bird, [The Jesus Tradition and Notebooks](http://www.patheos.com/blogs/euangelion/2012/03/the-jesus-tradition-and-notebooks/) It’s reasonable to believe Jesus’ disciples also kept notes/codices to record their rabbi’s sayings/teachings to aid in the process of transmission through memorization. The literature of oral cultures is especially rich in chiastic structure or [Chiasmus](http://www.davidicchiasmus.com/blog/new-testament/) to aid memorization. Around 80% of material in the Gospels attributed to Jesus contains features of Hebrew poetry such as parallelism and chiasmus, which comprise a mnemonic device that renders such teachings quite memorable. [Jesus and the Oral Gospel Tradition](https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Gospel-Tradition-Academic-Paperback/dp/0567040909) **Logia/Sayings of Jesus** A Logia (a compilation or an anthology of extracts) collection of the Sayings of Jesus are thought to have existed prior to the canonical gospels. “It is possible that they belonged to that large group of proto-gospels which Luke mentions (Luke. 1:1), and that they continued to exist from the decade 50-60 A.D. *”The gospel-making movement in the first Christian centuries was more extensive and more complex that is commonly thought.”* [The Oxyrhynchus Sayings of Jesus in Relation to the Gospel-Making Movement of the First and Second Centuries](https://www.jstor.org/stable/3259963?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents), Clyde W. Votaw, Journal of Biblical Literature Luke’s Gospel corroborates as much and records that many had undertaken to draw up an account of Jesus. He records they were handed down to us *by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word*. (Luke 1:1-3)