Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

FROM THE GOSPELS TO JESUS §8.5
the communities in which they were told and retold. What Jesus did was important
to these communities for their own continuing identity. 218
(2) In the material documented above, the differences introduced by the
Evangelists, whether as oral diversity or as literary editing, are consistently in the
character of abbreviation and omission, clarification and explanation, elaboration
and extension of motif. The developments often reflect the deeper faith and
insight of Easter; that is true. But they do not appear to constitute any radical
change in the substance or character or thrust of the story told. 219 Of course, we
have only sampled the Jesus tradition to a limited extent, and we will have to
check these first findings as we proceed. But at least we can say that thus far the
hypothesis offered in §6.5e and developed in §§8.1-2 is being substantiated by
the evidence; on the whole, developments in the Jesus tradition were consistent
with the earliest traditions of the remembered Jesus.
8.5. The Synoptic Tradition as Oral Tradition: Teachings
I choose the term 'teachings' rather than 'sayings', since the latter is too casual.
It allows, possibly even fosters the impression of serendipity — sayings of Jesus
casually overheard and casually recalled, as one today might recall impressions
of one's school or college days in a class reunion thirty years later. But as we
have already noted (§8.1b), Jesus was known as a teacher, and the disciples understood
themselves as just that, 'disciples' = 'learners' (mathetai). The recollection
of Jesus' teaching was altogether a more serious enterprise from the start.
Moreover, if I am right, the earliest communities of Jesus' disciples would have
wanted to retain such teaching, as part of their own foundation tradition and selfidentification,
a fact which Paul and other early Christian letter writers were able
to exploit when they incorporated allusions to Jesus' teaching in their own
paraenesis (§8.1e). We need not assume a formal process of memorization, such
as Gerhardsson envisaged. But a concern to learn what the master had taught,
and to exercise some control over the degree of variations acceptable in the passing
on of that teaching, can both be assumed on a priori grounds (§8.2) and find
at least some confirmation in the oral traditioning processes envisaged by Bailey.
218. It is probably significant that the two traditions of the same event which diverge
most markedly are those relating to the death of Judas (Matt. 27.3-10; Acts 1.15-20); in comparison
with the death of Jesus, the fate of Judas was of little historical concern.
219. It is more likely that Matt. 10.5 (restriction of the disciples' mission to Israel) recalls
Jesus' own instruction than that Jesus was known to commend a Gentile mission and Matt.
10.5 emerged as a prophetic protest within the Judean churches; in fact, Jesus' commendation
of Gentile mission is at best an inference to be drawn from certain episodes in the tradition. See
further below §13.7.
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