Kata Markon

["Antonio Jerez" <antoniojerez AT swip.net>]

Rikki E Watts wrote:

> Might I suggest that you get hold of Kenneth Bailey's article on oral
> tradition in the Near East "Informal Controlled Oral Tradition and the
> Synoptic Gospels," Themelios 20 (1995) 4-11.).  To quote from an earlier
> posting: 
> 
> Bailey had decades to observe how near eastern villagers passed on
> traditions and he noted several categories in which memory was employed in
> very different ways.  E.g. atrocity stories from outside the village or its
> sphere were largely uncontrolled and could be embellished liberally. On the
> other hand proverbs were strictly controlled and bewilderingly extensive
> passages from the Koran memorized verbatim.

Rikki has mentioned Bailey´s work many times on X-talk. I´m not going to argue
that Bailey's studies are without any worth - I'm sure they are. And they may 
shed
some light on certain phenomena in the NT. But does it explain all?  I think 
not. May
I point out that Bailey appears to be dealing with ORAL traditions and ORAL 
transmissions
in village cultures. The gospels on the other hand appear to belong to a 
jewish SCRIBAL tradition
in a SCRIBAL culture with roots going back hundreds of years before the 
gospels were written.
Scenes like Mark 6:30-44 and its parallels are most easily explained as 
scribal products.


Best wishes

Antonio Jerez
Göteborg, Sweden