Uncovering the Markan Allegory II

[Angrboda]

Consider also that there may be a great deal of filler in the narratives........what do you do when you have a introduction on page 1 and the message on page ten, you have 8 pages of material you need to come up with. The same is true of oral traditions, where patterns of speech or little "mini-stories" ,even down to repetitive phrases and command-call words, are often leveraged as a memory aide.

And this is especially important with these texts given that the oral tradition was likely shaped by synogogues and nascent "churches" using the "bones" of the stories to shape traditional liturgical practice. Perhaps by picking and choosing appropriately, perhaps by structuring the narrative to serve liturgical needs, such as commemorating OT historical events, Jewish/Christian events of significance such as feast days and holidays, and the like. Or, it could have been driven by a completely independent process. About all you have is speculation.

However, that being said, within the limits of hermeneutics (according to some like Gadamer, damningly confining), a historical or literary hypothesis is measured similarly to that of a scientific hypothesis. You cast around for hypotheses and explanations, given methodological standards and current knowledge, you estimate how probable each hypothesis appears to be, and compare probabilities to see if there is any clear differentiation. Unfortunately, that is not without its shoals as believers and disbelievers are likely to have irreconcilable differences regarding epistemological assumptions. (E.g. Are miracles an exceedingly rare event? Those following metaphysical realism, as opposed to methodological realism, would say yes. But what are they basing their assumption of the base rate of miracles upon beside an assumption? Perhaps the continuing law-like behavior of the universe is one non-stop continuous series of miracles.)