Oral Performance, Popular Tradition, and Hidden Transcript in Q (Society of Biblical Literature Semeia Studies)

This collection of essays examines the Gospels of Matthew and Luke (Q) from the point of view that the sayings of Jesus recorded there were, in fact, a series of speeches, oral performances. Further, it also seeks to understand the particular social and historical context of Q by applying the work of James C. Scott, who has been instrumental in framing and investigating the division between elite and popular culture, a line of inquiry that has broad implications for understanding the discourses in Q. These two parts of the volume come together to address the questions, Does Q reflect a village-centered (Galilean) mobilization of the subordinate against the dominant? And does it reveal the "hidden transcripts," that is, the private anti-elite discourse, of the peasantry?