James D.G. Dunn, The Oral Gospel Tradition (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans), 2013.

In this thoughtful volume Dunn has assembled essays previously published over the span of several decades on the subjects of orality, memory, and the Gospels. The collection is divided into 3 main parts though, curiously, those parts are not titled. They are simply named Part I, Part II, and Part III. Fortunately, readers arent left too long wondering what the constituent parts are about because in the Introduction Dunn tells the tale of his intellectual development and the purpose of each of the books parts. Dunn writes I was pushed to develop my ideas on the substance and variation in the Gospel tradition by a TV series, on Jesus: The Evidence, which in effect claimed that New Testament scholarship has undermined the historical value of the Gospels (p. 2). That was back in 1984. That was the beginning point of Dunns interest in the oral tradition behind the Gospels. Dunn goes on to share other autobiographical snippets (and all of them are both telling and interesting). And then he gets to the substance of his presupposition: a society where information would be passed from one to another by word of mouth, where teaching and story-telling would be orally communicated, is the society which we must envisage if we are talking about the earliest disciple groups in the 30s, 40s and 50s of the first century (p.5).

Whether or not that presupposition is correct remains an open question (though, to me, it seems self evident). Accordingly, Part I centers on the issue of orality and the essays therein on various gospels and their relationship to wider (oral and written) traditions. The essays in Part II are all attempts to respond to the varied criticisms which have been made of Jesus Remembered (p. 8). Dunn asserts I am somewhat dubious about modern theories of memory applied to ancient societies where memory seems to have functioned very differently from today, and had to so function if there was to be any extensive communication or any viable historical writing (p. 8). Dunn does well to be cautious. He continues, even more sagely A theory of parrot-like memorization will not do, given the variations and diversity of the tradition. A theory of freely creative memory aiming primarily to meet the needs and concerns of a later society will not do either (p. 8). Historians and scholars of every phase of biblical history would do well to take to heart that statement, for what Dunn asserts is as true of the Old Testament texts and the history of Israel as it is of the Gospels. Finally, The essays in Part III are attempts to step back from the close textual work and argumentation of Parts I and II to set the thesis about the oral gospel tradition in the wider contexts of the quest of the historical Jesus (p. 9). Scholars interested in the Gospels will doubtless be familiar with many of the essays included in this collection. The great value of the book is the fact that so many essays concerning the core subject are handily assembled in one place. Theres now no need to search various Journals and Festschriften to lay hold of these texts- they are all under one roof. As always, Dunn provokes thoughtful and careful readers to a deeper consideration of their presuppositions- or at least to a deeper consideration of Dunns.

Jim West Quartz Hill School of Theology