Oral Tradition and Synoptic Verbal Agreement

“A remarkable book, the product of years of work, including doctoral study in Oxford and firsthand research among Arabic-speaking Christians of the Middle East. Through incisive and detailed engagement with scholars' ideas, Derico thinks the unthinkable, and asks if the almost universal assumption that high levels of agreement between the gospels require a literary explanation is actually true. A timely, informative, and important contribution that should not be ignored.”

David Wenham

“Most New Testament scholars still operate under the assumption that verbal agreement among the Synoptic Gospels can be explained exclusively in terms of literary dependence. A growing body of research, however, suggests that oral tradition may also account for verbal agreement. T. M. Derico's analysis of the processes by which oral tradition is transmitted is a welcome addition that offers new empirical evidence in support of that claim.”

Armin D. Baum

“Derico's assessment of the contributions of such scholars as Bailey and Crossan is insightful and persuasive, underlining, for example, the difficulty of comparing traditional material that stretches over generations with the one-generation Jesus tradition of the Synoptic Gospels, and the differences between illiterates in a predominantly oral society and twentieth-century students. . . . I am happy to warmly commend Derico's work and do so without reservation.”

James Dunn