Memory, Jesus, and the Synoptic Gospels (Society of Biblical Literature)

Before they were written in the Gospels, the teachings and deeds of Jesus were preserved in human memory—with all its frailties and strengths—for perhaps as long as 30 to 60 years. Much can happen to traditions preserved in memories for so long, and this groundbreaking work addresses the impact that the qualities of human memory would have had on the traditions of the historical Jesus found in the Synoptic Gospels. It uses the insights gained from over a century of psychological experimentation to investigate the qualities and potential reliability of individual and collective memories underlying the various elements that make up the Gospel traditions. Memory, Jesus, and the Synoptic Gospels 4 Contents 6 List of Tables 10 List of Figures 11 Preface 12 Introduction 14 Part 1: Personal and Collective Memory 16 1. Eyewitness Memory 18 Issues Surrounding the Use of Eyewitness Testimony in Gospel Studies 18 The Characteristics of Eyewitness Testimony 23 Eyewitness Case Study 1: A Foiled Gun Shop Robbery in Burnaby, Vancouver 25 Eyewitness Case Study 2: John Dean’s Testimony 29 2. Transience and the Reliability of Long-Term Human Memory 34 Seven Frailties of Human Memory 34 Long-Term Human Memory and the Gospels 35 Forgetting Curves 36 Rates of Memory Loss during the First Five Years 42 Rates of Loss for Memories up to Fifty Years Old 48 Conclusion: Memory Stable after the First Five Years 52 3. Personal Event Memories 54 Flashbulb Memories Perhaps Exempt from Transience 54 The Reliability of Flashbulb Memories up to Three Years Later 57 Flashbulb Memories as Personal Event Memories 62 The Reliability of Personal Event Memories up to Fifty Years Later 66 Conclusions 70 4. Suggestibility and Bias 72 Suggestibility and False Memories 73 The Deese, Roediger, and McDermott False Memory Procedure (DRM) 73 Imagination of Events, Doctored Photos, and Plausible Early Memories 76 Inducing False Memories with Leading Questions 78 The Social Contagion of Memory 81 Hindsight and Other Memory Biases 84 Memories as Reconstructions from Various Memory Subsystems 89 5. Collective Memory 94 Elusive Nature and Explanatory Power of Collective Memory 95 Experimental Evidence for Collective Memory 97 The Influence of the Present on Collective Memory 100 Collective Memory in Oral Societies 104 Collective Memory Eight Decades after Halbwachs 106 Part 2: Jesus Traditions as Memory 108 6. Collective Memory as an Explanation of Gospel Origins 110 Collective Memory and Gospel Studies 111 Confabulation and formgeschichtliche Explanations of Gospel Origins 112 Confabulations in Collective Memories 116 Jesus as Teacher, and the Disciples as Preservers of the Jesus Traditions 123 Kenneth Bailey’s Description of Formal, Controlled Oral Traditions 128 Collective Memory in James D. G. Dunn’s Jesus Remembered 130 Conclusions 133 7. Eyewitness Memory and the Gospel Traditions 136 Characteristics of Written Texts Derived from Eyewitness Traditions 136 The Pericope Form and Eyewitness Traditions in the Gospels 138 From Eyewitness Memory to Written Gospels 140 The Apophthegmata (or Chreiai) as a Case Study of Potential Eyewitness Material 144 8. Memory Frailties and the Gospel Traditions 156 Transience and the Gospel Traditions 156 Personal Event Memories, the Gospel Traditions, and Transience 158 Source Documents and the Frailty of Transience 161 Suggestibility and the Gospel Traditions 166 Suggestibility and the Possibility of Nonauthentic Jesus Tradition 170 Bias and the Gospel Traditions 171 Conclusions 173 9. Collective Memory, Jesus as Teacher, and the Jesus Traditions 176 Jesus as a Teacher 177 Collective Memories of Jesus’ Teachings and the Jesus Traditions 181 Gospel Traditions of Jesus’ Teaching: Parables 183 Gospel Traditions of Jesus’ Teaching: Aphorisms 189 Jesus as the Origin of the Teachings Traditions 193 10. Conclusions: Memory, Jesus, and the Gospels 196 Appendix A. Th e Potential Pool of Eyewitnesses at the Time the Gospels Were Written 202 First-Century Life Expectancy 202 The Potential Pool of Eyewitnesses to the Life and Ministry of Jesus 215 Works Cited 224 Index of Ancient Texts and Authors 242 Index of Modern Authors 246 Subject Index 252 Eyewitness Memory -- Transience And The Reliability Of Long-term Human Memory -- Personal Event Memories -- Collective Memory -- Collective Memory As An Explanation Of Gospel Origins -- Eyewitness Memory And The Gospel Traditions -- Memory Frailties And The Gospel Traditions -- Collective Memory, Jesus As Teacher, And The Jesus Traditions -- Conclusions: Memory, Jesus, And The Gospels. By Robert K. Mciver. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 211-227) And Indexes.