5 - The paradigm enshrined: the authority of classics

Summary

INTRODUCTION: LANGUAGE AND WRITING

Spoken words vanish at the moment of their utterance. For this reason alone, speaking and the principles governing oral transmission are difficult to document.

In Christian New Testament studies, the scholar is engaged in discovering the living words of Jesus, whom Christians call the Lord. The English language does not necessarily specify a distinction between the spoken and the written ‘word’. But the French have always spoken of scripture as ‘la parole de Dieu’.

The oral word usually preceded the written text, except in cases where the record came from a previously unarticulated memory. In practically all the world's religious and literary traditions, the oral tradition has preceded the written. This is especially observable in the case of India. In the Hindu tradition, brahmins memorised and recited the Vedas but for many centuries resisted reducing them to written form. In the Buddhist tradition, there was a significant lapse of time between the historical Buddha's death and the eventual recording of the scriptures.

In China's case, the written text has also been slow to follow the spoken word. The Confucian classics were transmitted orally for centuries before they were committed to writing – and long after the invention of writing. Indeed, the character of the Chinese classics as oral tradition remains ‘imprinted’ on most of the written texts, whether as poetry which was meant to be sung, divinatory oracles intended for oral consultation, royal speeches and pronouncements, or dialogues between master and disciples.