Category Archives: oral tradition

TEAM 3, QUESTION 2

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A. The Last Supper contains phrases in which show that it has been passed through the Greek-speaking community as well as the Jewish community. One in particular is the word “that”. In Scripting Jesus, L. Michael White, it is note worthy that in Greek oral tradition the word “that” is used as means to quote something. This suggests that what Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians is likely to have been passed down from the oral tradition. Thus making it likely he has received this information from elsewhere. Although Paul’s account of the Last Supper is the earliest recollection of the event, it still shows an evolution of oral tradition (White, 114). The basic story of the Last Supper is consistent between the four Gospels in this way: Jesus’ body is compared to the loaf of bread, his blood is related to the cup; however, the wording and patterns vary between traditions of Jewish and Greek culture, therein White suggests that there are indeed subtle manipulations of the oral traditions that are present when comparing the phrasing in Mark and Matthew and Paul’s letters to Corinth. 

B. White suggests that the gospels have been narrativized by describing variation of word usage between the four gospels. It could be argued that these differences in the synoptics and Pauline writings are possibly just differences in writing styles. But there’s no denying that the specific usage of certain phrasing and words demonstrates how oral traditions of the Jewish culture was influenced by the Greek communities they were in proximity with. 

The time in which the Gospels were written correlates to unique phrasing that points to the possibility of the Gospel authors reading, editing, and incorporating new ideas and concepts from a previous Gospel or even previous oral tradition. It seems that White is pointing out a differing time period of each of these books, as well as recognizing the redaction of oral tradition. As these stories were shared, they continued to morph over time to fit in with the evolving cultural traditions within that society.

Team 1, Question 1

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Oral tradition was the predominate form of accounting and informing believers and nonbelievers of the story of Jesus.  L. Michael White says that there is a known formula in which oral tradition was spoken and passed around.  This formula most often starts with the phrases “I handed on to you what I in turn had received…”, and continues on with phrases such as “that” and “next”, which is exactly how Paul starts off and connects his passion account in 1 Corinthians 15:3-7 (108).  Another clue that points to oral tradition being the source of this passage is the use of repetition in groups of threes (ie: “died”, “was buried”, “was raised”), which was a common component of oral tradition (112).

Although oral tradition was certainly a reliable source, later versions of the same accounts contain distinguished differences (110).  This might be attributed to Christian theologian’s additions to stories to fill the gaps of the accounts of Jesus to help better understand the message. The origin of the integration Christian views and theological statements such as “for our sins in accordance with the scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3) is unknown.  However, their firm base in the Greek version of the scriptures hints that these Christian statements were added after Paul heard in Jerusalem (111).  This leads biblical scholars to believe that oral tradition was already expanding by the time Paul wrote it all down.  Although they might be considered minor, the variations in the story of the Passover attest to a flaw in oral tradition.  An example of these minor variations is in the account of the Last Supper; in Luke and 1 Corinthians Jesus is recorded as saying to eat and drink “in remembrance of me”, while Matthew and Mark do not include this key phrase (115).

Christians were compelled to develop traditions centered around Jesus’s death and resurrection because this account is, in the eyes of believers, proof that Jesus is not only the Son of Man, but also the Son of God.  Jesus’s death was unconventional in terms of the traditional stories of heroic mythological deaths.  Jesus was killed on a cross amongst criminals, and that sparks interest amongst believers and nonbelievers alike.  There is a vast, condensed amount of Biblical events that take place all in Jesus’s last days and his resurrection (last supper, Passover, Judas’s betrayal, tearing of the veil) that leads Christians to study and create traditions to help fully understand and remember the significance of each event during one of the most important accounts in Jesus’s lifetime.

Team 4, Question 2

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White Argues that the Last Supper tradition was circulated orally and was then written down based on the structure of the passage. White states that the formula for oral tradition following “the formulaic quality and close parallelism of the two sayings ‘This is … Do this … in remembrance of me’” (White p. 114). White goes on to compare the symbolism of the bread and the wine that Paul writes about in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26. The use of the Last Supper in the three Synoptic Gospels also hints that these authors shared a common source. White also highlights the difference between using bless and give thanks for describing the bread that Jesus breaks with his disciples (White p. 116). This difference could show the change from a Jewish community to one that is more Greek.

White points out that the gospel writers narrativize the story of the Last Supper by making changes to the oral tradition. White describes on such change as the addition of the phrase ‘Do this in remembrance of me’ to the Gospel of Luke and in 1 Corinthians (White p. 117). The various authors of the gospels and the author of 1 Corinthians use their sources to help build a narrative for their respective audiences. White shows various points in the stories of the gospels and 1 Corinthians where the authors probably changed the oral tradition to fit their story to make it clearer for their audiences (White p. 118). There is evidence that the authors changed the oral history to make it fit with their audience and arguments and shaped the context of the overall stories. These changes can seem minor but also play a larger role in the development of the way that various people understood Jesus and his teachings.

Team 6, Question 3 (4/19)

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1 Thessalonians was a book in the Bible that was written by Paul and intended for the church of the Thessalonians as a thanksgiving for the Thessalonians’ faith and their example of transformed lives in Christ. Specifically focusing on verse 9 and 10, where it says “9 For the people of those regions report about us what kind of welcome we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, 10and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath that is coming” (1 Thessalonians 1:9-10, NRSV). Analyzing verse 9, it appears that third parties from other areas had told Paul about the effects of the gospel-centered team in Thessalonica. The verse is also emphasizing how Paul’s gospel-centered team moved into Thessalonica with such impact, impact to the point where the Thessalonians had caught on to the fire and passion of Paul’s team that they turned from their idols and began to live transformed lives in serving the one and only God. Verse 10 goes on to talk about Jesus, his resurrection, and his ability to rescue those from the wrath that is soon to come. So from these two verses, it seems evident that the core message is to put emphasis on the truth that Jesus was in fact resurrected from the grave by God, and those who believe in Him will be rescued from wrath (not specifically mentioned as to what the wrath is but perhaps a reference to the end times and/or trials and tribulations). The book of Philippians is a book of letters that Paul is writing to the Philippians. Specifically looking at Chapter 2:5-11, we can see that Paul writes about Jesus Christ, saying that he was in the form of God but humbled himself, taking on the life of a human slave where he sacrificed himself for the world, eventually being exalted by God and rightly deserving and receiving glory by being worshiped by everyone on earth. So it appears that the core message of this passage is (specifically meant for the Philippians) to imitate Jesus’s model of humility, realizing that Jesus went out of his way to give up all his “rights” for God and offered himself as a living sacrifice in human form, being crucified, but in the end, being exalted and rightly deserving of everyone’s worship and praise.

Crucifixion was an absolutely shameful and disgraceful way to die.  The Romans would use it on slaves and foreigners, not on their own citizens.  The Jews regarded crucifixion as a curse, believing that victims of crucifixion were cut off from their connection with God as seen in Deuteronomy 21:23 when it says “23 his corpse must not remain all night upon the tree; you shall bury him that same day, for anyone hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not defile the land that the Lord your God is giving you for possession” (Deuteronomy 21:23, NRSV). So the Christ hymn can be seen as describing Christ’s humiliation, degradation and alienation to an extreme and disgraceful extent in regards to Jewish scriptures. Jesus’ obedience meant that he never went outside of God’s will.  Jesus never eased his situation with his own divine abilities.  Jesus remained humble and obedient to death – even crucifixion. For the Romans at Philippi, Philippians 2:8 would have made a profound and almost incomprehensible statement. This is because cultural ideas of divinity found in the Greco-Roman world considered honor, glory and pride as valuable virtues. Shame and humility was seen as a despised weakness.  The humility and obedience that the New Testament teaches, specifically in the Christ hymn, would have been a completely counter-cultural concept for the Philippian Christians. Furthermore, the word, “Lord,” used throughout the New Testament in reference to Jesus and also specifically in the Christ Hymn, was used in the Greek Old Testament as referring to Yahweh. Jesus is Yahweh, with God the Father and the Holy Spirit.  These three are the one true God, affirming the Trinity. And according to White, the Christ Hymn reflects early engagement with the Jewish scriptures and draws upon cultural ideas of divinity found in the Greco-Roman world by “calling Jesus ‘Lord’ here in the hymn as a reference to his exalted heavenly status was itself a Pauline adaptation based on another allusion to scripture, specifically Isaiah 45:23, as paraphrased in the last stanza of the hymn” (White 121).

In light of the fact that Jesus’ death was problematic for his followers because they had to work hard to convince people that his death was a positive event rather than a negative one, the Christ hymn probably served as a powerful and positive message for those who had negative views on Jesus’ death. The Christ hymn showed that Jesus’ death and crucifixion was intentional and used as a way to show how he humbled himself and died on the cross as a service to God, and how it eventually led to a reward for his service. The reward was that God exalted him “to a superior position (in heaven) and gave him the confessional title ‘Lord’” (White 121). So the Christ hymn served a great service to the Christian community in showing Jesus as Messiah, his ability to show humility, his free choice to die on a cross, and his reward to glory through God, who highly exalted him and graced him to the name Lord. This ultimately helped show that Jesus’ death was in fact a positive event and not a negative one.

Paul addresses his Thessalonian community (Thessalonians 4:13-18) in the time of mourning a death of a community member. The community is fearful that those who pass away before the end times will not able to be a part of the kingdom of God because they were not on Earth at the time of the apocalypse. But Paul addresses this fear and reassures the community by relating Jesus’ resurrection story and the ability of God to take those who have already died with him to the kingdom of heaven. In addition, Paul talks about how the dead will rise first, and will not be forgotten when it is time to join the kingdom of God. This teaching was important for the early followers of Jesus because it gave the assurance of life after death and decreased fear in the midst of death because of the promise of a reunion with Christ regardless of whether someone died before the end times. Paul urged that everyone in the community who had heard his message to encourage others with this truth.

RoJ 4/19 Team 5: Question 3

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Coping with death is never easy, especially when a faith and community leader is brutally murdered. Jesus’s followers struggled with his crucifixion; struggled to understand, to continue to believe, and to have hope. Despite this, many of Jesus’s closest followers orally passed on and lated wrote down accounts of his death, burial, and resurrection, known as called the “kerygma”/proclomation (White 106). Throughout different Gospel accounts and Paul’s letters, Christ’s followers are encouraged that Jesus’s death had purpose, was in God’s plan, and is a key tenant of faith.

Within 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10, Paul writes of a conversion of pagans to serving God. He identifies the previous traditional worship to idols, transitioning into Christians who are choosing to serve a “living and true God”. Within just a single additional verse, Paul also identifies the central belief of Jesus’s resurrection to Christianity along with the offer of eternal life to Jesus’s followers who choose to serve him. On the other hand, within the “Christ Hymn” of Philippians 2:5-11 Paul identifies Christ’s divine qualities as coming from God; but also highlights his humanly humility, obedience, and servitude and the acknowledgement from God that followed along these traditions. The core message within these scriptures is to highlight the duality between Jesus’s divinity and his humanity; the coexistence of the two and how they can occur simultaneously and that through being a suffering servant Jesus is exalted and honored by the Lord.

According to White (121), the Christ Hymn reflects early engagement with the Jewish scriptures and draws upon cultural ideas of divinity found in the Greco-Roman world by addressing suffering and the idea of being a servant (“obedient to the point of death”) such as were mentioned in Isaiah in regards to suffering servant songs.

The Christ Hymn served as a model for early Christians of God’s plan for Jesus. Watching their faith leader be crucified would have been devastating for Christians and have seemed like the “end of the road’. Paul takes Jesus’s crucifixion and describes it as something with purpose and hope. By describing Jesus as “emptying” himself and “humbling himself”, Paul makes the notion that it was a noble deed for Christ to die and within the Lord’s plan. Following the description of the crucifixion by exclaiming God’s exaltation of Jesus and the divinity of Christ, Paul reinforces the fact that Jesus is Lord and the crucifixion was an event to highlight Jesus’s divinity (Philippians 2:5-11).

Paul addresses his Thessalonian community in a time of mourning a loss of a community member, who are fear that those who pass away before the end of time will not able to participate in the kingdom of God because they were not on Earth at the time of the apocalypse. Paul relates Jesus’s resurrection to the ability of God to take those who have already died with him to the kingdom of heaven. In addition to this, he highlights that the dead will rise first, and will not be forgotten when it is time to join the kingdom of God. This teaching was important for the early followers of Jesus because it reinstilled hope in life after death and hopefully decreased fear and morning in the time of death because of the promise of a reunion with Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).

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