FORM

CRITICISM
PRESUPPOSITIONS
Champions of FC 2

OT scholarship –
 preliterary history of the OT
traditions;
 history of its various genres
and literary forms
 Herman Gunkel; Hugo
Gressmann
 3

NT scholarship: Triumvirate of FC

1) K. L.Schmidt
2) Martin Dibelius
3) Rudolf Bultmann
AIMS AND GOALS OF 4

FC
1. simply, to classify gospel
traditions according to their
form

2. most, to use fc insights to

establish history of gospel
traditions
(Traditionsgeschichte)
 5
3. To delimit what is traditional
from that which is the unique
contribution of an Evangelist.

4. Others, to know what Gospels

tell us of the Sitz im Leben
(“situation in life”) of the
early Church
 6

5. still others, to make

historical judgments re the
subject matter of the
materials, i.e., to make
decisions concerning the life
of Christ.
PRESUPPOSITIONS OF FC 7

1. Before the gospels were

written, a period of oral
tradition
 8

2 issues involved:
a) length of period
between oral trad and
writing
 9

2) whether this period was

exclusively oral
 10

 FC critics believed Gospels were

written “late” – between AD 70
to 100.
 Reasons for “lateness”:
a) imminent expectation of
the Parousia
- only with the delay was
need for writing was felt
 11

 - negated, however, by
Qumran: community held
imminent expectation, but
produced large numbers of
literary materials.
 12

b) As long as eyewitnesses
were still alive, no real need
for written Gospels
- Mark believed written
when Peter died
 13

c) in the minds of some, oral

tradition was more sacred
than the written
- Papias’ statement and
rabbinic tradition in support
 14

d) in Judaism, an established
pattern for oral transmission,
and so, Xtianity arising out of
jewish milieu, it was natural
that same pattern would be
followed.
 15

e) as long as Jerusalem
Church existed, a central
authority could be appealed
to in matters of dispute.
 16

- but with destruction of Jer

and loss in influence of Jer
church, a leadership
vacuum and need for
authoritative control of
gospel traditions, thus
leading to writing of gospels.
 17

 While reasons could explain

lateness, some questions
remain:
- were there/not other
written notes, collections
during this oral period? See
Luke’s introd. statement
referring to “many”…
 18

- while oral period existed

before writing, even after
writing this oral form of
transmission could have
continued to exist!
- thus, the oral period could
not have been only purely or
exclusively oral…
 19

2. During the oral period, the

narratives and sayings, with
the exception of the passion
narrative, circulated mainly
as single and self-contained
units, each complete in itself.
 20

 Oral tradition circulated as

individual “pearls” or units
of tradition.
 Evangelists simply supplied
the “strings” that tied
together these traditions.
 21

 Evangelists also as
“collectors” (Sammlern) of
materials using “cut and
paste” to bring isolated
traditions together
producing “pericope
collections” (rather than
complete gospels)!
 22

 K.L. Schmidt- points, e.g.,

to “seams” of Mark: the
verses connecting various
pericopes together which
are often very general and
rather vague.
 23

 Even the Passion Narrative is

thought by some to have
circulated in small
independent units – contrary to
the general opinion of scholars
that it was transmitted as a
totality – with chronological
progression and topological
details that seem to tie the
story together…
 24

 C.H. Dodd – that there

existed during the oral
period a “skeletal outline of
Jesus’ life and ministry” (in
Acts 10,37-41).
 25

3. The material in the Gospels

can be classified according
to their form.
 26

 Forms of Gospel
Materials/Traditions
according to 3 Renowned
Form Critics:
 See Table 10, p. 169
 27

4. The vital factors that gave

rise to and preserved these
forms are to be found in the
practical interests of the
Christian community.
 28

 Non
sequitur fallacy
committed by some F Critics:
- that the Sitz im Leben
(context) that preserved and
molded the gospel traditions
also (necessarily) gave them
birth.
 29

 Thatearly Christian prophets

did not make clear distinctions
between “message” that they
received from the Risen Jesus
and what the Historical Jesus
Himself said… that they freely
put into the mouth of the
Historical Jesus what they
received from Risen Jesus.
 30

5. The material of the

tradition has no biographical
or chronological or
geographical value.
 31

6. The original form of the

tradition may be recovered
and its history traced, before
being written down, by
discovering the laws of the
tradition.
 32

7. The eyewitnesses played

no significant role in the
process of oral transmission.
 33

8. The evangelists played no

significant role in their
recording of the gospel
traditions.
 34

- Thus, Church not only as

preserver but creator of the
traditions