On the selection of oral-traditional data : methodological prolegomena for the construction of a new model of Early Christian oral tradition

Abstract

Previous "technical" models have failed to provide a satisfying illustration of the social mechanism employed by the first Christians in the transmission of the oral Jesus tradition. This is largely the result of their having been constructed using unsuitable comparative data. Oral-traditional systems are the products of unique socio-cultural circumstances, and cannot be assumed to resemble each other apart from careful analysis. Thus, any non-Early-Christian oral-traditional data which is to be included in a model of early Christian oral tradition must be selected on the basis of its comparability with the early Christian data in respect to both literary and socio-cultural features.