Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

FROM THE GOSPELS TO JESUS S8.5
This evidence should be given more weight than has usually been the case.
Of course, such features are common to written as well as oral tradition. And an
Aramaic phase may only be evidence of an early (post-Easter) stage of transmission
when the tradition was still circulating in Aramaic. But if the tradition is
consistently marked by particular stylistic features, as the Aramaic specialists
conclude, then it has to be judged more likely that these are the characteristics of
one person, rather than that the multitude of Aramaic oral tradents had the same
characteristics. The possibility that we can still hear what Jeremias called 'the
ipsissima vox' (as distinct from the ipsissima verba) of Jesus coming through the
tradition should be brought back into play more seriously than it has in the thirty
years since Jeremias last wrote on the subject. 226
As with the narrative tradition, so with the teaching tradition, various examples
are readily forthcoming. We begin with two examples from within earliest
Christianity's liturgical tradition. In this case the studies in orality have confirmed
what might anyway have been guessed: that tradition functioning as
'sacred words' within a cult or liturgy is generally more conservative in character;
the transmission (if that is the best term) is in the nature of sacred repetition
in celebration and affirmation of a community's identity-forming tradition.
b. The Lord's Prayer (Matt. 6.7-15/Luke 11.1-4)
Matt. 6.7-15
7 "When you are praying, do not heap up empty
phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they
will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do
not be like them, for your Father knows what you
need before you ask him.
9 Pray then in this way:
Our Father who are in heaven, hallowed be your
name. 10 Your kingdom come. Your will be
done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us
today our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our
debts, as we also have forgiven our
debtors. 13 And do not bring us to the time of
trial, but rescue us from the evil one. 14 For if
you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly
Father will also forgive you; 15 but if you do not
forgive others, neither will your Father forgive
your trespasses".
Luke 11.1-4
1 He was praying in a certain place, and after he
had finished, one of his disciples said to him,
"Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his
disciples". 2 He said to them, "When you pray,
say: Father. hallowed be your
name. Your kingdom come.
3 Give us
each day our daily bread. 4 And forgive us our
sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone
indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of
trial".
226. Funk talks of Jesus' 'voice print', including antithesis, synonymous parallelism, reversal,
paradox, and others more distinctive to Funk's own standpoint (Honest 144-45, 149-58).
226