Following on from their introduction to social memory (episode 8), Tom and John explore how social memory theory can be applied to the Gospels, the traditioning process, and the historical Jesus. They also discuss how the so-called 'Third Quest' has evaluated the historicity of the feeding of the five thousand, and how social memory theory can help to refine our historical methodology. 

Social or collective memory theory is making waves in New Testament and Jesus research. But what is it? Tom and John discuss this question, returning to the origins of collective memory theory and exploring modern and ancient examples of social memory, including the siege of Masada, Donald Trump's 'Cyrus' topology, and Black Lives Matter. 

In episode 6, Tom and John explored how little can be gleaned about the historical Jesus from Paul's letters. But why the silence? Did Paul not know anything about the historical Jesus, or was he simply uninterested in him? In this episode, Tom and John explore these and other questions, and get to the bottom of why Paul does not quote Jesus tradition more in his letters. 

The apostle Paul was a contemporary of Jesus but not his disciple, so what did he know about Jesus? In this episode, Tom and John probe Paul's epistles to see what he knew about the historical Jesus. Along the way, they raise the question whether Paul may have known Q', or events in Jesus' ministry such as the empty tomb and virgin birth. They also consider what teachings Paul knew, and whether allusions to Jesus' teaching provide further evidence of the transmission of Jesus tradition. 

How are oral traditions passed down in traditional Middle Eastern communities? How and why do communities exercise control over their traditions? In this episode, John and Tom discuss the work of Kenneth Bailey, a New Testament scholar and missionary who paid close attention to these questions, and developed his own model of 'informal controlled' tradition, which advanced the discussion of oral tradition and the Gospels. 

In this episode, John and Tom explore a view of the traditioning process put forward by a school of Scandinavian scholars in the latter half of the twentieth century. They discuss what rabbinic tradition has to do with the Jesus tradition, whether Jesus might have taught his disciples through memorisation, and look at the Pauline evidence commonly put forward for this view. 

Continuing their series exploring the topic of the oral transmission of Jesus' words and deeds, theology graduates Tom and John discuss form-criticism, a popular method of Gospel analysis which had its heyday in the first half of the twentieth century. Tom and John discuss what 'form-criticism' is, how the form-critics understood the traditioning process, and engage some common critiques of that understanding.

Before the Gospels were written,  Jesus' teachings and deeds were transmitted in an oral context. In this episode, theology graduates Tom and John discuss different models of oral tradition, and explore the criteria for what makes for a 'successful' model of the traditioning process.