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The Oral tradition, is the cultural material and traditions transmitted orally from one generation to another. The messages or testimony are verbally transmitted in speech or song and may take the form, for example, of folktales, sayings, ballads, songs, or chants. In this way, it is possible for a society to transmit history, literature, law and other knowledge across generations without a writing system.

The Jews at the time of Jesus had developed an extensive oral tradition which remained an important aspect in Jewish scholarship (perhaps also Jewish Christian) until the destruction of the Second Temple in the year 70, when it began to be written down in texts such as the Mishna.

Sitz im Leben

After the Crucifixion of Jesus, James the brother of Jesus, became the leader the Jewish sect that would become known as Christianity. These Jewish followers of the Rabbi from Nazareth were located in and about Jerusalem and proclaimed that Jesus was the promised Messiah.

These early Jewish Christians were thought to have been called Nazarenes. The term Nazarene was first applied to Jesus. After his death, it was the term used to identify the Jewish Sect that believed Jesus was the Messiah. The Nazarenes were generally accepted as being the first Christians who were led by James "the Just", until he was martyred c.62 AD.

As Jews, this group worshiped at the Temple in Jerusalem, revered written Law called Torah Shebiktav and also the early oral tradition called Torah Shebeal Peh. This oral tradition interpreted the written law given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai. It was in this cultural context or Sitz im Leben that the Christian Oral Tradition had its roots, as Jesus and later Christian 'Rabbis' developed the oral "Gospel" to interpret the written Law given to Moses by God.

When the Second Temple at Jerusalem was destroyed in the year 70, this oral tradition was no longer tenable and it became necessary for it to be written down, which it was in the Mishnah. Scholars are in general agreement that the Jewish Christians up to the destruction of the Temple had no written Gospels being circulated among them.

The Evangelists

This would have been the oral traditions that the Evangelists drew on when composing the first gospels. This oral tradition consisted of several distinct components. Parables and aphorisms are the "bedrock of the tradition." Pronouncement stories, scenes that culminate with a saying of Jesus, are more plausible historically than other kinds of stories about Jesus. Other sorts of stories include controversy stories, in which Jesus is in conflict with religious authorities; miracles stories, including healings, exorcisms, and nature wonders; call and commissioning stories; and legends.

Although this Jewish/Christian midrash was generally considered reliable it was not historical, but theological nature. Form criticism (Formgeschichte) was developed primarily by the German scholars Karl Ludwig Schmidt, Martin Dibelius, and Rudolf Bultmann. The oral model developed by the form critics drew heavily on contemporary theory of Jewish folkloric transmission of oral material, and as a result of this form criticism one can trace the development of the early gospel tradition. However, "Today it is no exaggeration to claim that a whole spectrum of main assumptions underlying Bultmann's Synoptic Tradition must be considered suspect." A number of other models have been proposed which posit greater control over the tradition, to varying degrees. For example, largely in response to form critical scholarship, Professor Birger Gerhardsson examined oral transmission in early rabbinic circles, and proposed that a more controlled and formal model of orality would more accurately reflect the transmission of the Jesus tradition in early Christian circles, and therefore that the oral traditions present in the gospels have been fairly reliably and faithfully transmitted. Professor Kenneth Bailey, after spending a great deal of time in remote and illiterate villages in the Middle East, used his experience with orality in such places to formulate a similar model of controlled transmission within the early Christian communities, but posited an informal mechanism of control. Controlled models of the Jesus tradition, and with them an evaluation of the gospels as possessing greater historical reliability, have been accepted by several scholars in recent years.

Church Fathers

It must be remembered that Jewish/Christian scholarship had been oral. The Dead Sea scrolls and Josephus give us a broad understanding of the Sitz im Leben that gave rise to this tradition. Jesus (for example his Expounding of the Law) and other rabbis would have expounded and debated the law (the written law expressed in the Hebrew Bible). They would have discussed the Tanakh without the benefit of additional written works (other than the Biblical books themselves), though some may have made private notes (megillot setarim).

This situation changed drastically, however, mainly as the result of the destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70 and the consequent upheaval of Jewish/Christian social and legal norms. Jewish Christians were required to face a new reality— without a Temple (to serve as the center of teaching and study), the old system of oral scholarship could not be maintained. It is during this period that rabbinic discourse began to be recorded in writing.

The Church Fathers recognized this fact. The diaspora, (or Tefutzot תפוצות, "scattered") after the defeat in Great Jewish Revolt resulted Jews being scattered throughout the empire (Jews have been "scattered" several times in history, see Jewish diaspora for details). The Fathers of the Early Church noted that the first gospel was composed out of necessity when Matthew was about to leave. Matthew, a Galilean Jew and follower of the rabbi Jesus is said to have written the first gospel. This is referred to as the Matthean priority. As a disciple, Matthew followed Jesus, and would have been an eye witness to the rabbinical midrashic discourse of the "Rabbi from Nazareth". Matthew may have even participated in the development of the Torah Shebeal Peh as the Talmud mentions him as a follower of Jesus the Nazarene. Matthew reduced this Logia into a written form in what would become known as the first Gospel.

References

1. Jan Vansina, Oral Tradition as History, James Currey Publishers, 1985. pp 27- 28
2. ^ , Hermann Strack, Hermann, Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash, Jewish Publication Society, 1945. pp 11-12.
3. ^ Grayzel, A History of the Jews, Penguin Books, 1984. p 193
4. Some scholars believe "brother" did not mean "brother" but rather cousin or relative.
5. Galatians 2:9
6. While its historical accuracy is disputed by some, the major primary source for the Apostolic Age (c.30-c.100) is the Acts of the Apostles.
7. Jerome, Vir.ill. 3
8. ^ F.L. Cross & E.A. Livingston, The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, Oxford University Press, 1989. p 957 & 722
9. Gospel of Matthew 2:23
10. Gospel of Matthew 2:23
11. Barrie Wilson, How Jesus Became Christian, Random House, 2009. pp 1 - 20
12. Josephus, Antiquities 20:9
13. Ahavat Torat Israel P 1
14. Joseph Barclay, The Talmud, BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2009. p 14
15. J. P. Moreland, The God Question, Harvest House Publishers, 2009. pp 111-115
16. Brad Young, Meet the rabbis: rabbinic thought and the teachings of Jesus, Hendrickson Publishers, 2007. pp 3-203
17. Paul Isaac Hershon, A Talmudic miscellany, Trübner & co., 1880. p xv-xvi
18. Daṿid Weiss Halivni, Revelation Restored: Divine Writ and Critical Responses, Westview Press, 1998. p xiii
19. R. Travers Herford, Christianity in Talmud and Midrash, KTAV Publishing House Inc, 2007. pp 1-34
20. Henry Wansbrough, Jesus and the oral Gospel tradition, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2004. pp 9-59
21. Barry W. Henaut, Oral tradition and the Gospels, Continuum International Publishing Group, 1993. pp 13-53
22. Schmidt, K. L. (1919). Der Rahmen der Geschichte Jesu. Berlin: Paternoster.
23. Dibelius, M. (1919). Die Formgeschichte des Evangelium 3d Ed. Günter Bornkamm (ed). Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr.
24. Bultmann, R. (1921). Die Geschichte der synoptischen Tradition. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht.
25. ^ http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/article_tradition_bailey.html
26. Kelber, W. H. (1997). The Oral and Written Gospel: The Hermeneutics of Speaking and Writing in the Synoptic Tradition, Mark, Paul, and Q. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. p. 8.
27. Gerhadsson, B. (1998). Memory and Manuscript: Oral Tradition and Written Transmission in Rabbinic Judaism and Early Christianity with Tradition aand Transmission in Early Christianity Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
28. Wansbrough, H. (Ed). Jesus and the Oral Gospel Tradition London: Sheffield Academic Press
29. .Dunn, J. D. G. (2003). Jesus Remembered Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
30. Funk, Robert W. and the Jesus Seminar. The acts of Jesus: the search for the authentic deeds of Jesus. HarperSanFrancisco. 1998. Introduction, p. 1-40
31. "They (the Apostles) were led to write only under the pressure of necessity. Many Jews/Christians left Jerusalem. It is said that Matthew was part of this . Matthew, who had first preached the Gospel in Hebrew, when on the point of going to other nations, committed the Gospel to writing in his native language". - Eusebius, Hist. eccl., 3.24.6
32. " The very first Gospel to be written was by Matthew, once a tax collector but later an apostle of Jesus Christ. Matthew published it for the converts from Judaism and composed it in Hebrew letters." - Eusebius,Hist. eccl., 6.25.4.
33. "Matthew collected the teachings of Jesus (ta logia) in the Hebrew language and everyone translated them as best he could.' - Eusebius, Hist. eccl., 39.16
34. Peter Schäfer, Jesus in the Talmud, Princeton University Press, 2007. p 75
35. Bernhard Pick, The Talmud: What It Is and What It Knows of Jesus and His Followers, Kessinger Publishing, LLC, 2007. p 116
36. Talmud Bavli, Tractate Sotah 48b
37. Paul Carus, The sayings of Jesus in the Talmud, The Monist, Volume 20, Open Court for the Hegeler Institute., 1910. p 414
38. Eusebius, Hist. eccl., 6.25.4.
39. Eusebius, Hist. eccl., 39.16

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