orality, sucka

'formulaic stability' and 'compositional variability' go hand in hand - 'this mid-state between fixed and free'. oral transmission 'exhibits "an insistent, conservative urge for preservation" of essential information, while it borders on carelessness in its predisposition to abandon features that are not met with social approval'. 'variability and stability, conservatism and creativity, evanescence and unpredictability all mark the pattern of oral transmission' - the 'oral principle of "variation within the same"'.
- werner kelber

bout to finish whuppin up on this little paper over the oral nature of the transmission of the earliest Jesus traditions.