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Old 02-23-2012, 08:59 PM   #21
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Hi outhouse,

Please give any scientific evidence that people of Judea had better memories than the average 10 year old kid today. Since the average Judean had no schooling, did not learn to read or write and never had need to memorize anything, it seems to me likely that the average Judean would have inferior memorization skills than the average 10 year old who has used her memory to at least learn basic reading and writing.

I would also like any evidence that even the 5-10% of males in the cities of Judea that they had any more intellectual capability than the average high school senior today.

The belief that our ancestors possessed great intellectual powers has no basis in science. It is a myth that goes well with the myth that they lived 450 or 900 years.

As for your college professor, how did you test his accuracy in memorizing the New Testament? Do you know which of the many variant versions of the New Testament did he memorize?

Warmly,

Jay Raskin

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It strikes me as funny that OP who knows nothing at all about ancient oral tadition tries to tear it down with a poor example of modern oral tradion with people not practiced in the art.

Its ignorance, nothing more.



OP you do realize much of the OT can be recited line for line with incredible accuracy, dont you????


http://www.probe.org/site/c.fdKEIMNs...he_Gospels.htm


The evidence shows that in oral cultures where memory has been trained for generations, oral memory can accurately preserve and pass on large amounts of information. Deuteronomy 6:4-9 reveals to us how important oral instruction and memory of divine teaching was stressed in Jewish culture. It is a well-known fact that the rabbis had the O.T. and much of the oral law committed to memory. The Jews placed a high value on memorizing whatever wri ting reflected inspired Scripture and the wisdom of God. I studied under a Greek professor who had the Gospels memorized word perfect. In a culture where this was practiced, memorization skills were far advanced compared to ours today. New Testament scholar Darrell Bock states that the Jewish culture was "a culture of memory."


You have no clue do you???


what paty of they can recite the OT verbatim by oral tradion dont you understand.

people can recite the koran verbatim.




we are talking about a ancient culture well practiced in oral tradition with a illiteracy rate of roughly 90%

How do you think legends survived 50-60 years after jesus was dead :constern01:
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Old 02-23-2012, 10:46 PM   #22
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The examples of exact oral transmission involve students schooled in repeating sacred texts.

But the gospels only show a wandering preacher who posed riddles and told parables that people did not understand.

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How do you think legends survived 50-60 years after jesus was dead?
Legends survive or not, but these legends could have been invented, whether or not Jesus lived. You can't argue the accuracy of oral transmission by appealing to something that might or might not have been accurately transmitted.
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Old 02-23-2012, 11:01 PM   #23
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The examples of exact oral transmission involve students schooled in repeating sacred texts.

But the gospels only show a wandering preacher who posed riddles and told parables that people did not understand.
The question then becomes what model of oral transmission would fit in 1st century Palestine? A lot of work on this has been done since Bultmann's adoption of German folklore models. It's well known that for teachers in the hellenistic era memorization was key. Parables and aphorisms are readily memorized. Bultmann's approach was clearly flawed. But that doesn't mean that the rigid, controlled model of Bauckham is any more accurate. Werner Kelber's adoption of an oral-formulaic model seems equally unlikely.

Interestingly enough, when Gerhardsson's Memory and Manuscript first came out, it faced a great deal of criticism, including that of scholar and rabbi Jacob Neusner. However, the re-release of this work (which includes Gerhardsson's next contribution to the debate) was due to Neusner himself, who realized that critiques (including himself) had written off Gerhardsson for points he never made.

It's not unlikely a priori that during a time and in a culture where oral testimony was considered superior to textual, memorizing was a key component of teaching, and teachers used aphorisms and other readily memorized oral "genres" that the Jesus tradition involved a similar processes.
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Old 02-23-2012, 11:29 PM   #24
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Gday all,

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I don't think this happened:

Yup.

But one would expect that if Jesus really told his followers how to pray by teaching them the Lord's Prayer, then it would have been remembered or recorded pretty well.

Instead we get several different versions in the Gospels, another version in the Didakhe, and a mish-mash of variants in the Gospel MSS.

Seems pretty strong evidence that Jesus did NOT teach any such prayer at all.


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Old 02-23-2012, 11:35 PM   #25
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...

It's not unlikely a priori that during a time and in a culture where oral testimony was considered superior to textual, memorizing was a key component of teaching, and teachers used aphorisms and other readily memorized oral "genres" that the Jesus tradition involved a similar processes.
It could have happened, but is there any reason to think this did happen?
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Old 02-23-2012, 11:52 PM   #26
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It could have happened, but is there any reason to think this did happen?
Yes, there is some reason. Convincing enough? That's another matter. We know that in the hellenistic area oral transmission was trusted over and against textual sources. We know that Greek, Roman, and Rabbinic teachers required students to memorize their teachings. We know that a lot of the the "oral Jesus tradition" as reflected in the early christian sources are consistent with readily memorized teachings. But we don't know if the early "church" ensured that these teachings were reliably transmitted, they were readily added to, or transmitted without control.
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Old 02-24-2012, 12:44 AM   #27
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Gday,

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Originally Posted by LegionOnomaMoi View Post
But we don't know if the early "church" ensured that these teachings were reliably transmitted, they were readily added to, or transmitted without control.
Well,
the Lord's Prayer was not reliably transmitted, we have several different versions.

The names of the apostles were not reliably transmitted, we have different lists.

The alleged words of God at the Jordan baptism were not reliably transmitted, we have two different versions.

The alleged speeches of Jesus were not reliably transmitted, we have various chopped up versions of his speeches.

The alleged last words of Jesus were not reliably transmitted, we have several different versions.

The alleged birth stories of Jesus were not reliably transmitted, we have different versions of the stories.

The alleged genealogy of Jesus was not reliably transmitted, we have two different versions.

The alleged trial of Jesus was not reliably transmitted, we have various different versions of the story.

The alleged easter morning events were not reliably transmitted, we have various different stories.

Indeed - most of the Jesus stories come in varying versions showing they were not reliably transmitted.

The Oral Tradition, if it ever existed at all, failed dismally.


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Old 02-24-2012, 01:29 AM   #28
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Originally Posted by Kapyong View Post
Gday,

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Originally Posted by LegionOnomaMoi View Post
But we don't know if the early "church" ensured that these teachings were reliably transmitted, they were readily added to, or transmitted without control.
Well,
the Lord's Prayer was not reliably transmitted, we have several different versions.

The names of the apostles were not reliably transmitted, we have different lists.

The alleged words of God at the Jordan baptism were not reliably transmitted, we have two different versions.

The alleged speeches of Jesus were not reliably transmitted, we have various chopped up versions of his speeches.

The alleged last words of Jesus were not reliably transmitted, we have several different versions.

The alleged birth stories of Jesus were not reliably transmitted, we have different versions of the stories.

The alleged genealogy of Jesus was not reliably transmitted, we have two different versions.

The alleged trial of Jesus was not reliably transmitted, we have various different versions of the story.

The alleged easter morning events were not reliably transmitted, we have various different stories.

Indeed - most of the Jesus stories come in varying versions showing they were not reliably transmitted.

The Oral Tradition, if it ever existed at all, failed dismally.


Kapyong
All your examples are actually supporting the opposite conclusion. For example, the "lord's prayer" is quite similar in our various early attestations. The names of the "12" are as well. But the real issue is how reliable and controlled the transmissiong of Jesus' were.
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Old 02-24-2012, 01:37 AM   #29
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The Oral Tradition, if it ever existed at all, failed dismally.


Kapyong
Well if there was one then it has been extremely successful. For without it (if it existed) we would not have the worlds most influential religion 2000 years later, assuming of course there is any meaningful relationship between the oral stories and christianity
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Old 02-24-2012, 03:04 AM   #30
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Gday,

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Originally Posted by LegionOnomaMoi View Post
All your examples are actually supporting the opposite conclusion. For example, the "lord's prayer" is quite similar in our various early attestations.
The names of the "12" are as well.
WAR IS PEACE,
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY,
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.

Multiple different versions show accurate Oral Tradition ?!

Are you a Poe, or are you actually serious ?


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But the real issue is how reliable and controlled the transmissiong of Jesus' were.
We've seen how reliable it was - completely UNreliable.

If Jesus had really taught directly from mouth to ear, his words would have been recorded carefully. But the dozen or more variations show it never came from Jesus himself - various later Christians made up what ever they thought was right.

Even the alleged words of GOD HIMSELF were changed by later scribes!

Jesus' last words on the cross - the most dramatic moment of the whole story! And yet we have at least three different versions.

Tell us LegionOnomaMoi, what were the last words of Jesus?


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