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.