From: relvkr@learnlink.emory.edu (Vernon K. Robbins)
To: crosstalk@info.harpercollins.com
Date: Thu, 12 Jun 1997 17:23:09 -0400
Subject: Re: oral traditions

jpman@accesscomm.net,Internet writes:
>   I find this fascinating, Vernon.  I would like you to
>expoundfurther, if you will, on the indicators of oral vs literary text
>and
>examples.  I am interested in whether the "oracles" which were
>putatively written by Matthew as they were spoken is preserved
>in either Q or Thomas.

	Perhaps.  We could only establish a good hypothesis
about this only after much detailed analysis.

>The apparent use of the GThom by Paul as early as the 50's...i.e.,
>Logion
>17 in 1 Cor 2:9 is interesting since  Paul states "as it is written,"
>not oral.

	Very interesting, isn't it?  Conzelmann's Hermeneia
commentary is helpful as a starting point.  He observes that
Paul's quotation "cannot be found either in the OT or in
extracanonical writings."  He also adds that Origen says
(Orig., Comm. in Matt 5.29, on Mt 27:9), that it comes from
the Elijah Apocalypse.
	One might suppose that Paul has scribed it
verbatim (or relatively so) from a Jewish document
available to him.  Paul does not suggest that it is a
saying of Jesus.  Rather, it is a "written testimony" 
that supports his argment in this context.
As Miriam Dean-Otting and I observed
in Semeia 64 (1993): 95-115, longer recitations 
that function as "testimony" in the context of 
elaborated argument (as this is in Paul) in the NT
often have more characteristics of "scribal" wording.
They function, then, as "inartistic testimony," testimony
that the speaker himself has not "created" " or
"artfully molded."  
	What is noticeable, then, is the variation
in wording.  
1 Cor 2:9 reads:
"What eye has not seen 
and what ear has not heard,
and in the human heart has not arisen, 
what God has prepared for those who love him." 

GThom 17 reads:
I shall give you
what no eye has seen,
and what no ear has heard,
and what no hand has touched,
and what has not arisen in the human heart.

Notice the parallel constructions and 
repeated words in GThom 17 (and if 
you have the Coptic text, the repeated 
words in it).  It is noticeable that GThom
17 is "orally" structured.  Its variations
from 1 Cor 1:29 are all a matter of 
orientation toward oral performance.  In
other words, the GThom performance
has no concern with verbatim repetition
of something someone has written 
somewhere.  It attributes to Jesus 
a saying constituted in an oral mode
that has many variations in Mediterranean
literature.

Luke 10:23-24 and Matt 13:16-17 are
very interesting variations of this saying.
One can see a scribal relation between
the Matthean and Lukan versions, not
independent oral performances of the 
saying between the two of them. 

Among other things, we see here 
one of the major differences
between the "Jesus" tradition and the "Pauline"
tradition.  What Paul will assert in the form of
standard modes of rhetorical argumentation
(which include argument from ancient written
testimony), Jesus tradition in GThom attributes 
to Jesus in an orally constituted form.  The canonical
gospels present various forms of "scribalization"
of this oral tradition.

>In 1 Cor 4:8, Paul renders from GThom #2 (pap oxyr 654.2), later
>confirmed
>by Clement, Strom 5.4 which he calls "the Gospel of the Hebrews."

	Sorry, but my copy of Clement's Strom. is at
my other office.  I would rather respond in a context
where I can see his exact wording there.

	Vernon Robbins

-- 
Vernon K. Robbins, Department and Graduate Division of Religion
537 Kilgo Circle, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322 USA
(H) 404-982-0174; (O) 404-727-6466; Fax 404-727-7597
relvkr@learnlink.emory.edu