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oral materials, sources, and traditions, stories, songs, poetry, and other materials of varying types and lengths that circulated in oral or written form and on which the final texts of the ot and nt are based. In ancient Israel stories about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, the Exodus, the wilderness wanderings, and the conquest of the land of Canaan were told again and again by parents to their children (see Exod. 12:26-27; 13:14-15; Josh. 4:6-7) and by skilled storytellers to larger gatherings of the community. Later stories dealt with judges (such as Deborah, Gideon, and Samson), kings (Saul, David, Solomon, and their successors), prophets (such as Samuel, Nathan, Elijah, and Elisha), and other key figures and events.

As these materials were handed down from generation to generation, they underwent change by becoming embellished, refined, and reinterpreted. Traditions that had similar content or style were brought together into, for instance, a cycle of stories about Abraham, a collection of laws (e.g., the Covenant Code in Exod. 20:22-23:19 or the Holiness Code in Lev. 17-26), or a series of prophetic utterances about a certain theme (e.g., those in Mic. 1-3 or in Mic. 4-5).

Such collections of traditions could in turn become sources for the later writings that we have in our present ot. Four great sources probably lie behind our Pentateuch: about the time of Solomon (latter half of the tenth century b.c.) the Yahwistic source (commonly called J), beginning with Gen. 2:4b and continuing through Genesis, Exodus, and Numbers, was probably compiled out of many of the early oral traditions; the Elohistic source (called E), also in Genesis, Exodus, and Numbers, emerged perhaps a century later and drew more on traditions from the Northern Kingdom than did the southern J; D, the source for much of Deuteronomy, brought together mostly the northern laws during the seventh century; and P, the Priestly source to be found from Genesis 1 through Deuteronomy 34, was a postexilic (late sixth-early fifth century b.c.) combination of both narratives and laws. Each of these sources has a distinctive point of view and style. They all eventually became combined into the Pentateuch as we know it.

Many other sources existed for other parts of the ot. A few times they are even mentioned: the Book of the Wars of the Lord (Num. 21:14); the Book of Jashar (Josh. 10:13; 2 Sam. 1:18); the book intended for Joshua (Exod. 17:14). In Isa. 8:16 the prophet orders preservation: ‘Bind up the testimony, seal the teaching among my disciples.’ Jeremiah 36 recounts an interesting story of the gathering of some of his utterances. There is also a striking incident described in 2 Kings 22-23 about a written source—often thought to be the source D—that is found and then is used in King Josiah’s religious reformation.

Oral traditions and written sources preceded the final form of much of the nt as well, although this process was only decades long in contrast to the centuries during which some of the ot grew. After the death of Jesus the early believers spoke repeatedly about his life, ministry, and death. They recounted many of his sayings, including terse paradoxes (e.g., Mark 10:31), proverbs (e.g., Matt. 6:27), prophetic statements (e.g., Mark 1:15), and comments about law and piety (e.g., Mark 3:4). Equally important were the numerous parables and miracle stories.

Such materials, originally oral, became collected into various sources on which the writers of the Gospels later drew (Luke 1:1-4). A careful comparison of the similarities and differences among Matthew, Mark, and Luke suggests at least the following sources: various short writings about Jesus to aid in the preaching and teaching ministry of the early church, serving as the primary sources for Mark, certainly the first Gospel to be written; a sayings source commonly called Q (for German Quelle, ‘source’) with some two hundred verses that Matthew and Luke have in common but that are not in Mark; another source on which only Matthew drew; and also one distinctive to Luke. The Gospel of Mark itself served as one of the primary sources for Matthew and Luke. However, the Gospel of John, although written after the other three, did not seem to use them as sources but rather drew directly on older oral traditions. Paul probably wrote his Letters without benefit of many sources other than some sayings of Jesus (e.g., 1 Cor. 7:10-11) and some church formulations, such as the christological hymns in Phil. 2:6-11 and Col. 1:15-20.

Oral tradition was handed down among Jewish scribes and rabbis after the close of the ot era. This occurred mainly in the form of interpretations of the Torah—expositions of its legal stipulations (halakah) and sermonic expansions of its narrative parts (haggadah). These were transmitted orally for centuries and finally achieved written form in compilations known as the Mishnah and the midrashim.

Achtemeier, Paul J. ; Harper & Row, Publishers ; Society of Biblical Literature: Harper's Bible Dictionary. 1st ed. San Francisco : Harper & Row, 1985, S. 732