Are We "Misreading" Paul?: Oral Phenomena and Their Implication for the Exegesis of Paul's Letters

Abstract

A critical approach toward oral rhetorical qualities and styles can be traced as far back as Quintilian, if not before. Inquiry into the orality of Homer dates as far back as Josephus, but the work of Milman Parry and Albert B. Lord stands out in particular. Parry and Lord studied South Slavic poetry in an attempt to answer the Homeric question that addresses the authorship of the major Greek epics. Their research has alerted modern readers that the ancients did not receive a written message in the same way the modern readers do. These theories are absolutely essential foundations for any Pauline letter. Like the Greek epics, letters were verbally mediated, as the discussion below will indicate. A brief survey of both non-biblical and biblical scholarship on this matter will reveal varying insights, as well as implications for an improvement of rhetorical studies and general exegesis of Pauline letters. At the very least, the exegetical assumption of the interpreter must accommodate orality in Paul’s society.