Tuesday, 31 May 2016

Memory and Identity in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity,
Tom Thatcher ed., SBL, 2014, page 167

Summing up the background and Werner Kelber's work, Dr Keith writes:

Like the form critics against whom he argued, then, Kelber saw the transition from orality to textuality as the threshold between to early Christian epochs and as a significant marker between two Christologies. Unlink the form critics, he saw the transition from orality to textuality as a cataclysmic explosion demanding explanation rather than casual dismissal as the logical outcome of oral-transmission processes.

The transition from a bi-lingual Hebrew/Greek expression to a mono-lingual and monocultural Greek expression happened at the same time. What effect did this have on the viability of the respective Hebrew and Greek speaking churches?