Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

ORAL COMPOSITION

Composers of the materials which now make up the OT and NT (and nearly all other materials of the time) expected the majority of people who came in contact with their compositions to hear, rather than read, them. The literacy rate was less than 10 percent, so compositions were structured for the ear rather than the eye. Audiences heard clues to meaning and structure because they had learned to communicate in a world where those clues were essential to understanding, much as periods and paragraph indentations in modern English literature.

In a “primary oral culture,” one which has no contact with writing, attitudes and actions toward issues are more dependent on interpersonal interaction than on an abstract set of values. Many scholars relate the development of the vowelized phonetic alphabet to the development of abstract thinking. Philosophical thinking, then, is minimal in such cultures. For example, the principle of righteousness is not defined but is demonstrated in epic illustrations. One acts a certain way not because it is “right” but in order to follow the example of a hero. Indeed, the epic tales of the oral culture are the primary means of education. Moral norms, trade skills, history, and every aspect of communal life are passed on in oral poetry.

As a natural consequence of the necessity of preserving the traditional material, the stress is on the community rather than on individualism and individual thought. Traditional materials also deal with matters of high practicality and interest. If an idea or procedure loses its validity or usefulness, it is forgotten. Thus, these societies tend to be very conservative, maintaining an equilibrium for generations.

The primary characteristic of oral composition is the use of formulaic and thematic style. Formulas are preset groups of expressions or figures of speech used to communicate given ideas within the poetic meter. They do not indicate theme, structure, or style. Themes are groups of topics which are normally associated with one another in the composition of traditional songs. Various themes such as birth, the council, and marriage follow one another in recognizable patterns and are found in oral compositions of nearly all primary oral societies. Oral poets do not seek the originality of a literary author. They simply follow a theme and, for the most part, use formulas associated with that theme to fill in the meter of their song.

In a primary oral society poets learn the formulaic technique through apprenticeship, and it is assimilated by the rest of the society. This formulaic (and thematic) style leads both to consistency and inconsistency. While using formulas and themes which characteristically fall into place within conventional songs makes the stories easy to remember, it also leads to substitution of similar but different formulas and themes when retelling the story. Verbatim memorization is extremely rare. Thus, oral poets may tell a song hundreds of times with very little change in the general content but they are unlikely to tell it exactly the same way twice.

Oral compositions in the form of poetry and song are present in all societies, and the reciprocal influence which flows between literature and oral artistry must not be underestimated. This is especially true in cultures with a high degree of residual orality, such as those which produced the Bible and early Church literature. The biblical documents were written by authors who were influenced by their own literacy. However, these authors never forgot that they were addressing hearing audiences (cf. Rev. 1:3). Aural structural and mnemonic clues were just as important in the literary compositions of the OT and NT as in oral compositions in primary oral societies.

There is a high degree of interplay between a storyteller or teacher and the audience in an oral culture. Authors in a culture with a high degree of residual orality tend to be more aware of the speaker/audience relationship. They dialogue with their audience and create adversaries to argue against in order to make their point. They are more concerned with how relationships are affected by a topic than a philosophical position of “right” versus “wrong.” They are more likely to give examples to follow and instances of praise and blame rather than setting forth a logical argument designed to promote a certain action.

Since unused information tends to be forgotten, outside of traditional stock phrases (e.g., in parenesis), authors in cultures with a high degree of residual orality tend to deal with topics which are immediately applicable to the present situation, either of the author or audience, rather than theoretical. Authors will bring themselves and their audience into the discussion rather than looking at a topic from a distance.

Figures of speech, which are widely used in all forms of communication, are especially important in oral composition. From the time of Cicero onward, the primary rhetorical criterion for judging the merit of a speech was the proper use of the metaphor and other figures. Major figures of speech include antithesis, synonymy, vagueness, metaphor, and wordplay.

Repetition, as evidenced in structural patterns such as inclusio and chiasm, has to this point been the major emphasis of most oral biblical criticism. Forms of repetition include sounds, grammatical constructions, words, and topics. Repetition can be used to group elements into high frequency blocks to indicate units or be fashioned into inclusio and chiasm to show structure. Especially in the case of word and topic repetition, it can be spread over large blocks of material to designate major structures.

Oral composers use rare words because of aural and rhetorical considerations. With respect to aural considerations, rare words may be chosen in order to avoid hiatus, form a rhyming couplet, or give added emphasis to a unit in which a certain sound is grouped. Rhetorically, a rare word may be used to gain the audience’s attention or to influence their emotions.

An author’s use of oral formulas may indicate material which the author discusses frequently. In a culture with no literacy, formulas are words and phrases dealing with a specified topic and fitting a certain rhythm. In an oral/literary environment, where meter is not nearly so much of a concern, a formula is more of a cliche or standard phrase used to express a certain thought. It is the use of an expression in a grammatical or contextual setting simply because of its habitual association with that setting. There is little or no conscious deliberation with respect to its use.

An awareness of the influence of the principles of orality is particularly helpful with regard to determining the structure of a book and individual units within that book. It also provides insight into the usages of many words and forms which may seem unusual to readers in a fully literate society.

Bibliography. C. W. Davis, Oral Biblical Criticism: The Influence of the Principles of Orality on the Literary Structure of Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians. JSNTSup 172 (Sheffield, 1999); J. Goody and I. Watt, “The Consequences of Literacy,” in Literacy in Traditional Societies, ed. J. Goody (Cambridge, 1968), 27-68; W. V. Harris, Ancient Literacy (Cambridge, Mass., 1989) E. A. Havelock, The Literate Revolution in Greece and Its Cultural Consequences (Princeton, 1982); A. B. Lord, The Singer of Tales. Harvard Studies in Comparative Literature 24 (Cambridge, Mass., 1960); W. J. Ong, Orality and Literacy (1982, repr. London, 1991).

Casey W. Davis

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

ORAL COMPOSITION

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)