Orality and the Gospels: A Survey of Recent Research

Abstract

In the last thirty years there have been significant developments in the application of orality studies to the Gospels. The objective of this article is to provide an overview of the field through a survey of its leading proponents, including Werner Kelber, Joanna Dewey, Paul Achtemeier, Peter Botha, Richard Horsley and Jonathan Draper, Kenneth Bailey, James Dunn, Richard Bauckham, David Rhoads and Whitney Shiner. The essay begins with a discussion of several foundational studies, before turning specifically to the reconception of orality and the implication of this research for the Gospels. The study concludes that, while an appreciation of orality has made inroads into certain segments of Gospels research, it remains a neglected and underexploited dimension of NT interpretation.

Questioning the Feasibility of the Major Synoptic Hypotheses: Scribal Memory as the Key to the Oral–Written Interface

“…This theory has been influential in later studies, especially its emphases on ‘the improvisation in performance, the use of formulas and themes, the additive mode, [and] the use of archaic obscure language’ (see De Vet 2008: 161). Still, as Kelly R. Iverson indicates (2009: 74), most recent scholars no longer agree with its ‘sharp distinction between orality and textuality’. However, in the Parry-Lord model, although the singer simultaneously functions as the performer and the composer, it is still argued that the oral and the literary media are not compatible with each other:The written technique, on the other hand, is not compatible with the oral technique, and the two could not possibly combine, to form another, a third, a ‘transitional’ technique.…”

New Testament Media Criticism

“…In a recent publication in Currents in Biblical Research , Kelly Iverson has provided an encompassing overview and introduction to the theory and application of orality studies as they relate to the canonical gospels (Iverson 2009). Iverson traces the origins of orality studies and the gospels to the pioneering oral-formulaic work of Milman Parry (1930, 1932, 1933) and Albert Lord (1960, 1978, 1981).…”

“…Iverson traces the origins of orality studies and the gospels to the pioneering oral-formulaic work of Milman Parry (1930, 1932, 1933) and Albert Lord (1960, 1978, 1981). He also notes that the methodological and sociological work of Eric Havelock (1963) and Walter Ong (1982) has been monumentally influential in NT orality studies (Iverson 2009: 74-77). The majority of Iverson’s review, however, addresses NT interpreters who utilize orality criticism and performance criticism to interpret NT—and particularly gospel—texts: Werner Kelber (1983), Joanna Dewey (1989), Paul Achtemeier (1990), Pieter Botha (1991), Richard Horsley and Jonathan Draper (1999), Kenneth Bailey (1991), James Dunn (2003a, 2003b), Richard Bauckham (2006), David Rhoads (2006, 2006b), and Whitney Shiner (2003).…”

“…Werner Kelber’s work on oral and written gospel traditions in The Oral and the Written Gospel remains seminal for orality studies and the NT (Kelber 1983; for a review of Kelber’s text, see Iverson 2009: 77-82). However, because Kelber argued that Mark’s written gospel took a polemical stance towards its antecedent oral tradition in an attempt to silence that tradition, Kelber’s methodology has been characterized—rightly or wrongly—as ‘the Great Divide approach’ to orality and textuality.…”

Implementing Skopostheorie in Bible Translation

“… 35 See Rhoads 2006; Iverson 2009; Robbins 1995. Acknowledging that orality and literacy interact on a continuum, Robbins prefers to call New Testament culture a “rhetorical culture.” …”