Orality And Its Implications For Biblical Studies: Recapturing An Ancient Paradigm -- By: John D. Harvey

Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 45:1 (Mar 2002)
Article: Orality And Its Implications For Biblical Studies: Recapturing An Ancient Paradigm
Author: John D. Harvey


Orality And Its Implications For Biblical Studies:
Recapturing An Ancient Paradigm1

John D. Harvey*

* John Harvey is associate professor of Greek and New Testament at Columbia Biblical Seminary & School of Missions, 7435 Monticello Road, Columbia, SC 29230–3122.

Modern scholarly interest in orality began with the writings of Milman Parry in the 1920s and 1930s.2 Since that time the literature on the subject has mushroomed. In his 1985 annotated bibliography John Foley listed over 1,800 entries related to oral theory, 1,500 of which stem—directly or indirectly—from Parry’s pioneering work.3 It was only in the 1960s, however, that scholars began to take an active interest in applying oral theory to the biblical documents, with their primary focus on the OT.4 It was Werner Kelber’s writings in the late 1970s and early 1980s that served to increase interest in the relationship between oral tradition and the NT documents.5 In the 1990s scholars in increasing numbers began to call for a consideration of orality in NT studies.6 Nevertheless, most biblical scholars continue to examine the NT documents using presuppositions that apply more to nineteenth and twentieth-century literary/print culture than to the culture in which those documents were originally produced. Before proceeding further, therefore, it will be necessary to give some thought to the nature of first-century culture.

I. The First Century: What Sort Of Culture Was It?7

The discussion of the transition from primary orality to primary literacy has been approached from at least three different perspectives. Eric Havelock’s concern is classical Greek culture. He approaches the question using the grid of literacy and proposes a continuum which begins with pre-literate culture and extends through craft-literacy, recitation-literacy, and script-literacy to type-literate culture.8 Based on the common appearance of writing in Greece in the last third of the fifth century bc, Havelock places the transition to script-literacy—the ability of the average person to pick up a manuscript and read it—around 450 bc.

The mere appearance of writing, however, does not necessarily mark an immediate transition from a primarily oral culture to a primarily literate cu...

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