Phil Collins, Anton Bruckner, and Jesus

Last updated on: July 20, 2007 at 11:58 am by James F. McGrath

Phil Collins, Anton Bruckner, and Jesus 2007-07-20T11:58:00-04:00 James F. McGrath

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The title may sound like a joke, but the truth is that most recent discussions of oral tradition in the Gospels have made use of the Lord-Parry school’s work on folk songs and epics. I have some significant problems with this, given the role of meter and rhyme and the assistance to memory provided by music in the case of this very different genre. Nevertheless, there are useful comparisons that can be made.

Recent works on oral tradition in the Gospels (most notably perhaps James Dunn’s recent books) have emphasized the inappropriateness of speaking of an ‘original form’ of a saying or story. Although I am not persuaded that it is inappropriate for historians to seek to recover the earliest version possible, the point is that each new performance can significantly add to and alter a song, although it can in the end take on a relatively definite form through repetition.

By way of illustration, I offer the demos of songs that one can now find shared on the internet and more frequently through peer-to-peer hubs and chat rooms (I recently downloaded some of Phil Collins’). Those of us who have written songs (remember your garage band?) know that they rarely come into existence fully-formed. There are various steps – happening across a catchy chord progression, starting with a verse or a chorus while the rest follows, honing it and improving it, eventually sharing it with the band, having your vocalist make suggestions, and so on. When Jesus went away into the wilderness to pray, was this also time spent ‘composing’? Did he return with ‘new material’ from such times? Were the disciples, sent out to convey his message, like ‘performers’ of his ‘compositions’? How useful is this comparison.

Those who are fans of Anton Bruckner’s music are probably aware that, in the case of his symphonies, he continued revising them after their initial performances and publication. This is not that unusual – but Bruckner has more of a penchant for it, perhaps, and this is one of the things that gave rise to the saying that he didn’t compose 9 symphonies, he composed one symphony nine times. In relation to the Jesus tradition, it is fair to ask whether there might not have been revision, adaptation, improvement and other modification to sayings and stories after their first performance. Many historians are hesitant to pursue this line of reasoning because it has so often been misused by fundamentalists seeking to harmonize the various Gospels by asserting that ‘they are all correct – Jesus just said all these different versions’. But the possibility needs to be explored, even if it is ultimately rejected.

The short story in Matthew’s Gospel about two sons, one of whom obeys (after saying he wouldn’t) and the other of whom disobeys (after saying he would) may be an earlier version (a ‘draft’, if you will) of the story in Luke’s Gospel that we know as ‘The Prodigal Son’. But who is responsible for elaborating it into the fuller form we have in Luke? Kenneth Bailey, responsible for some important work on oral tradition and on the cultural setting of the parables, suggests that the poetic genius behind the Lukan parables he studied was perhaps none other than Jesus himself. However, the extended chiasms or inverted parallelisms Bailey identified seem more characteristic of written composition than orality, where the earlier lines are not visible, are not there to be set side-by-side with later parallels. Short chiasms are typical of orality; longer structures are not (one may think of the alphabetic acrostics found in some psalms, which by virtue of the fact that they use the alphabet imply literacy).

I had a conversation about memory and orality with a friend of mine, also a New Testament scholar. He found much encouragement for the possibility of precise preservation of information through an experiment with student memorization. But such experiments fail to ask the question of how one memorizes a ‘text’ when there is no static written version to go back to. What are needed are experiments involving composition of oral pieces with similar length and structure to the longer Lukan and Matthean parables. For the study to provide genuine light on the subject, however, we would ideally need to have test subjects whose primary mode of communication and thought was not literature. It is not appropriate to assume that Jesus and his followers were not literate – neither Galilee nor its neighbors were purely oral cultures at this stage. Neither is it appropriate to assume, however, that those whose literacy may have been rudimentary, of the form most common in this time and place, would have composed lengthy works with elaborate structures and parallelisms, utilizing the method that would perhaps be most natural to us: imagining it written.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

July 19, 2007

Accuracy is not Inerrancy

Next Post

July 20, 2007 The Lesser of Two Evils

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 1 Corinthians 1 John 1 Peter 1 Samuel 1 Thessalonians 1 Timothy 2 Corinthians 2 Kings 2 Peter 2 Samuel 2 Thessalonians 2 Timothy academia Acts of the Apostles afterlife Akhaten Alcatraz American Academy of Religion Amos Anglican Arabic Aramaic archaeology art artificial intelligence astronomy atheism atonement Babylon 5 Baptists Battlestar Galactica Bible Biblical Studies Carnival biblioblogging Black Mirror Blade Runner Book of Job book review Buddhism Call for Papers China Christianity Christmas Christology Chronicles Coptic creation Daniel Deuteronomy Doctor Who Dune Easter Ecclesiastes economics education Eldad Keynan Enoch Seminar Ephesians eschatology Esther Evangelicals evolution Exodus Expanse Ezekiel Ezra fantasy Fringe fundamentalism Galatians games Ge'ez genealogy Genesis Gnosticism Gospel of Jesus' Wife Gospel of John Gospel of Judas Gospel of Luke Gospel of Mark Gospel of Matthew Gospel of Peter Gospel of Thomas Greek Harry Potter Hebrew Hebrews Hinduism historical Jesus history Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Holidays horror Hosea humor incarnation India inerrancy information literacy inspirational Intelligent Design Ireland Isaiah Islam Israel Italy James Jeremiah John the Baptist Jonah Joshua Judaism Jude Judges Judith Lamentations languages Latin Leviticus libraries literature Lord of the Rings LOST Mandaeans Mandaic memes Methodism Micah monotheism morality Mormons movies music mythicism NASSCAL Nehemiah new perspective New Testament news Numbers Orthodox paganism panentheism pantheism Patheos Paul and his letters Pentecostals Philippians Philippians 2:6-11 philosophy physics Planet of the Apes podcast politics Progressive Christianity Protestantism Proverbs Psalms pseudoscience racism religion Revelation Roman Catholicism Romania Romans Ruth scams science science fiction Secret Gospel of Mark Society of Biblical Literature Song of Songs Star Trek Star Wars Stargate Swahili Syriac Taoism technology Terminator The Handmaid's Tale The Hobbit The Matrix theodicy theology theory Timeless Titus tomb Torchwood travel TRON Uncategorized United Kingdom Westworld X-Files young-earth creationism Zechariah

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 February 2007 January 2001

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz