What Does Orality Do For Us Today?

Glad you asked. Ancient texts emerged from an oral and aural culture. Though not entirely (see Nichols Elder, Gospel Media), books were written to be read aloud and so were designed for listeners. Again, not entirely. But enough that we need to adjust to oral culture and break down some of our solo-reading culture instincts.

Which is why the new book, Hear Ye the Word of the Lord, by D. Brent Sandy, deserves to be read carefully.

One of his points is that we can approximate this oral culture in the retelling of Gospel stories, and I want to include a part of one of his. The story of Jesus’s first sermon at Nazareth, from Luke 4. He’s made his mark with miracles and proclamations about the kingdom. He returns home, and Sandy now creates with the eyes of imagination what it was like to watch Jesus:

We were in a quandary. Not being sure what was going on, some of us began to think one thing and some another period we were confused. Might Jesus have been a prophet in disguise all these years and it was just now coming to light? Truthfully, that seemed to be a far-fetched idea, but how else could we account for all this?

Others in the synagogue were not so optimistic: “he's no better than any of the rest of us, and for him to claim he is, makes no sense.” These people began to look at Jesus in disgust.

On the one hand, if prophets like Elijah and Elijah could do miracles, and if it's true that Jesus could, then maybe he was a prophet. Those of us thinking this way were amazed and excited that it could be true. If so, the future was suddenly a lot brighter.

The other possibility did not put Jesus in a favorable light. In our honor and shame culture, for Jesus – seemingly a commoner like everyone else – to claim such honor would be setting himself above the rest of us. This didn't sit well, and many began to take offense at what Jesus had said.

To add to that, it's not uncommon to hear of supposed miracle workers in our day, even claiming to be messiahs, impressing a few people, but never amounting to much. So we really didn't know what to think about Jesus.

Some asked the question, “isn't this just Joseph’s son?” But exactly what the point was wasn't clear. Weren't they impressed that one of our own might somehow fulfill Isaiah's words? Or was it more of a sneer: “Who does he think he is anyway?!”

What Jesus said next was the total shock. “Go ahead, you might as well quote your proverb: ‘physician, heal yourself!’” Those were explosive words and brought out an instant negative reaction. We'd heard the proverb before, but what right did Jesus have to make such a claim?

But he was right. The heart of the issue was, he'd have to prove that he was someone special by healing all the physical problems in Nazareth, otherwise we'd consider his claims bogus. If he had actually done miracles in other villages in Galilee and refused to do the same on his home turf for family and friends, how fair would that be? Wasn't he obligated to us even more?

By this point, we were all beginning to fuss and fume about what Jesus was saying he made it sound like it was our fault for feeling entitled that he – if indeed he was a prophet – should do the amazing things here in Nazareth, which Isaiah said would happen. Was he really reneging on doing what would verify his professed identity?

It was a terrible feeling. We had felt jesus's presence for years; Looked into his face; Chatted about this and that; Trusted what he said; I admired his work period but this was different.

He sketches scenes prior and subsequent to this, but this is a kind of oral re-telling that can enliven the Bible’s texts. We can only do this, so Sandy instructs us, By entering into someone’s shoes, someone’s feelings, someone’s emotions, someone’s perspective, someone’s reactions. In other words, it takes knowledge and work and imagination to retell a story about Jesus.

So, what does Sandy teach us we can do? I now give his final suggestions, and much of what follows are his words, though not necessarily a quotation:

1.    We can listen to the Bible on various media platforms.

2.    We can read the Bible in groups of a few people, and then discuss what we experienced.

3.    We can go to the public reading of scripture website: www.prsi.org

4.    We need to be prepared to hear the word of God as it speaks to us, rather than simply reading the word of God.

5.    We need to remember that logos, word, was spoken word.

6.    We can practice contextualizing passages and verses, both when reading scripture and when translating or explaining it.

7.    We need to prepare performances of biblical passages for small group gatherings. In doing so we might pick and choose different translations in different bibles in order to find the language that best expresses the text orally.

8.    Musicians can choose texts that are lyrical already in the Bible.

9.    For children we need to dramatize the texts of scripture, which good children pastors and teachers do.

10. Preachers need to do more storying and less exegeting. We could use scriptures own stories rather than stories from our own lives.

11. Scholars need to give more attention to the orality of texts. SMcK: I want to mention that I tried to do some of this in my commentary on Philemon.

12. We can offer classes and colleges and seminaries on oral interpretation.

13. Study Bibles can include notes to help readers perform the text.