Ever heard of Holy Oral Tradition?
The Hebrews had just such a convention. And I believe it's one of the missing links in our study of the earliest Christianity.
In Jewish antiquity, memory played a large part in their religious life. Stories were memorized and as such, were kept at the forefront of their minds and lives. The treasured vignettes provided patterns to follow or patterns to avoid. It was a tradition of memory and speech, perscribing right attitude and action, anchored in their hearts and poised on the tips of their tongues.
Today, we've downloaded our memories into books and computers. We don't need to memorize anything anymore. We have blackberries and palm pilots and cell phones freeing our minds to better ambitions, like trying to remember where the stylus or ear bud was left. We don't need to memorize what Jesus said either, cause we have it several times in the different Bibles we have at home. If I want to know what He said, I can just go and look it up. Yes, we're more advanced than ever.
Since the first Christians didn't have 5 Bibles for every believer, or even one for that matter, how did they know about Jesus, His words and His deeds?
Most all theologians agree that the first Gospel written (whichever it might've been) wasn't written for many, many years (20-45 years) after Jesus' death, burial and resurrection. Now does that make any sense to you? I mean, the disciples who wrote Canonical Gospels, Matthew and John, could've written, should've written their accounts immediately and had them publised by Zondervan. What kinda book deal could they've gotten? And what a disservice they committed by neglecting to write those things down immediately for those who wanted to read/know about Jesus?
Enter the Holy Oral Tradition. The stories of Jesus and His miracles and deeds were known from the beginning. They were remembered and their wording crafted so as to be easily memorized by His disciples and later committed to memory by others who followed. They were stylized and repeated with precision. For many years the mythical Q was in existence. Only it was in the minds of countless Christians. The fact that these short quips and stories found their way into the Gospels, albeit in very similar forms, testifies that these were memory texts. That's one reason why there are small variances from one Gospel to another.
So why didn't they write these things down immediately? Simply enough, it was against the practice of the Hebrews to convey Holy Oral Tradition in writing. For years and years the Jesus Tradition was passed from person to person, from memory to memory, living in the minds and hearts of His followers as Holy Oral Tradition. They didn't need a WWJD bracelet. They had His words and deeds emblazoned on their hearts. They knew exactly what He'd do because His words and deeds had invaded their minds.
Today, Jesus is not the central focus of most churches. When I say most, I mean over 95%. And I believe it's even closer to 100%. Jesus has been relegated primarily to a figure-head status. Why aren't His words and deeds focused on each and every week? Why aren't people fixated upon Him alone? Why haven't they memorized His words and deeds? He is God's Wisdom revealed. He is what the wise men and the righteous had longed to see and His teachings hear, but they did neither.
You think I've forgotten about Paul.
I believe - with my whole heart - that today, Paul would be sorely disappointed in the way we use his letters. Our pastors and teachers and theologians prefer his letters to the pericopes of Jesus. But this was not the way it was in the First Century.
Paul, when he started a church, went to a specific city. He spent much time wherever a church was started. And I'm convinced it was then and there that Paul delivered the Foundation, which was the Jesus Tradition, to them in person. It was Holy and it was Oral and it was the Basis, the Centerpiece, on which they believed.
To be continued.
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