Some History On Narration – Part I by Carroll Smith

The earlier blog posts on narration reviewed the work of teachers who were involved in PNEU schools. These I hope have “warmed your imagination” a bit about this topic. Hopefully, it has created questions, some of which have been posted as comments. I will get to those and any others before I finish with these posts on narration. For this blog I want to go back to the beginning.

That is a long way back. All the way back to the beginning of the Jewish people is where we will go. (One could also probably trace this through other people groups as well, but this is the one most familiar to me.) Before we do, I want to give a couple of reminders. First, print was not available. Whatever very few books might have existed at that time were handwritten. Second, very, very few were able to read the written words. In fact, in Nehemiah 8:5, “Ezra opened the book. All the people could see him because he was standing above them; and as he opened it, the people all stood up. Ezra praised the LORD, the great God; and all the people lifted their hands and responded, ‘Amen! Amen!’ Then they bowed down and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground.” One man is reading to a vast crowd. There is only one book and very likely only a very few who could read that book. Let’s imagine that moment.

Can you see yourself there among the crowds of your people, looking up at Ezra? Think of the awe! Here is Ezra reading from a book that had been written for you and your people but which had been neglected for years and years while in exile. It was the only book in the world that you knew about, and have only just learned of its existence. Ezra has been reading from morning till noon – to both women and men. What a response of awe, wonder, and respect as you and your people listen to those words from the Book of the Law of Moses–words with such a focus, a direction, commanding a sense of wonder about the God who wrote them. These words create in you a deeper sense of “us” with your people, clarifying your common life, your common goal.

These words take you back to another time when Moses told your people: “And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today? Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them” Deuteronomy 4: 8-9 (NIV). “These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up” Deuteronomy 6: 6-7, (NIV).

Take note: the oral tradition is being commanded here. We are responsible for teaching our children and in those days, it had to be done through oral tradition–which is narration or retelling. But today many would consider that tradition weak. Something needs to be “in writing” to be verified, it is thought. Is it so bad to only have learned things orally? Let’s take a jump to some more recent research and study.

Albert Lord (1964) said in his book, The Singer of Tales, that through his study of the epic poetry of Yugoslavia, he watched the oral tradition in process. His conclusion was:

We realize that what is called oral tradition is as intricate and meaningful

an art form as its derivative “literary tradition.” In the extended sense of the

word, oral tradition is as “literary” as literary tradition. It is not simply a less

polished, more haphazard, or cruder second cousin twice removed, to

literature. By the time the written techniques come onto the stage,

the art forms have been long set and are already highly develop and ancient. (p. 141)

The point here is that before writing was invented and widely used, the passing on of knowledge, poetry, music was done through the use of oral transmission. Lord indicates that the oral tradition is the backbone on which the literary tradition rests. In fact, the oral tradition in no way weakens the content that is passed down. In other words, the use of committing knowledge to memory and having to depend on the memory of humans did not weaken the authenticity of the knowledge being passed on orally. David Rubin in his book, Memory in Oral Traditions (1995), says, “The transmission of oral traditions is remarkable to the modern, literate observer. Songs, stories and poems are kept in stable form in memory for centuries without the use of writing, whereas the literate observer has trouble remembering what happened yesterday without notes” (p. 3). The problem isn’t the legitimacy of narration or the oral tradition, the problem is our weak, unused memory systems.

Tenney in his commentary on John in the Expositor’s Bible Commentary says, “It seems probable that the story of Mary’s anointing of Jesus may have been narrated in the church prior to the writing of this gospel (vol 9, p. 115).

The point in telling you this is that narration has been used for centuries. Only one person, Ezra, read the Scriptures. Retelling those Scriptures, as well as their national history had to be done by parents using the oral tradition. Narration is not a modern invention. It was not invented by Mason. The other very important point is that narration, as history has taught us, is a most effective way to “know.”

Next post (God willing and I have some time during the conference) we will continue our look at narration from a historical point of view.

Holy Bible. (2005). New International Version. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

Lord, A. B. (1964). The Singer of Tales. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Rubin, D. C. (1995). Memory in Oral Tradition: The Cognitive Psychology of Epic, Ballads, and Counting-out Rhymes. New York: Oxford University Press.

Tenney, M. C. (1981). The Gospel of John. In F. E. Gaebelein (General Ed.). The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, vol 9, pp 3-203. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

© 2013 Carroll Smith