Paul's Oral/Written Discourse
Posted: July 21st, 2013, 10:03 am
My recent foray into DA has led me to Levinsohn and Dooley's "Analyzing Discourse". I had a quick scan through and noticed the part about variations between oral and written discourse. I know its been a bit of a hot topic in Biblical Studies as to how Paul's letters were produced and intended to be communicated. Its regularly claimed that Paul used an amanuensis to copy down his 'discourse', but there are a variety of opinions about how influential this amanuensis could be. Alongside this is the recognition that we should assume a relatively low literacy rate among the house churches Paul writes too, and that Paul was communicating to the ear and not the eye.
Im relatively certain that most Rhetorical Criticism is wrong headed on this issue, in that it makes the Roman/Greek oratory manuals the standard. Not that Paul is not using Rhetoric, but that it is not the standard Greco-Roman Rhetoric of someone like Cicero. But in terms of DA, given these factors, how do we go about categorizing a letter like Galatians for example? Should we consider it orally/aurally, or literarily? And secondly, how would this recognition effect our analysis? (Levinsohn points out that deviation from a default or unmarked word order is more likely in Speech than in writing)
Take this for example:
Gal 1:8-9
ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐὰν ἡμεῖς ἢ ἄγγελος ἐξ οὐρανοῦ εὐαγγελίσηται ὑμῖν παρ’ ὃ εὐηγγελισάμεθα ὑμῖν, ἀνάθεμα ἔστω.
ὡς προειρήκαμεν, καὶ ἄρτι πάλιν λέγω, εἴ τις ὑμᾶς εὐαγγελίζεται παρ’ ὃ παρελάβετε, ἀνάθεμα ἔστω.
Paul here seems to repeat himself. The ὡς προειρήκαμεν looks like it is referring to the previous verse, in other words "As we have just said...". This hardly seems necessary for a letter designed to be read. But to a listening audience, it strongly emphasises the point.
This is all new to me so if this is obvious just let me know
.
Dan
Im relatively certain that most Rhetorical Criticism is wrong headed on this issue, in that it makes the Roman/Greek oratory manuals the standard. Not that Paul is not using Rhetoric, but that it is not the standard Greco-Roman Rhetoric of someone like Cicero. But in terms of DA, given these factors, how do we go about categorizing a letter like Galatians for example? Should we consider it orally/aurally, or literarily? And secondly, how would this recognition effect our analysis? (Levinsohn points out that deviation from a default or unmarked word order is more likely in Speech than in writing)
Take this for example:
Gal 1:8-9
ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐὰν ἡμεῖς ἢ ἄγγελος ἐξ οὐρανοῦ εὐαγγελίσηται ὑμῖν παρ’ ὃ εὐηγγελισάμεθα ὑμῖν, ἀνάθεμα ἔστω.
ὡς προειρήκαμεν, καὶ ἄρτι πάλιν λέγω, εἴ τις ὑμᾶς εὐαγγελίζεται παρ’ ὃ παρελάβετε, ἀνάθεμα ἔστω.
Paul here seems to repeat himself. The ὡς προειρήκαμεν looks like it is referring to the previous verse, in other words "As we have just said...". This hardly seems necessary for a letter designed to be read. But to a listening audience, it strongly emphasises the point.
This is all new to me so if this is obvious just let me know

Dan