(DOWNLOAD) "Memory, Written Sources, And the Synoptic Problem: A Response to Robert K. Mciver and Marie Carroll (Critical NOTES)" by Journal of Biblical Literature ~ Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Memory, Written Sources, And the Synoptic Problem: A Response to Robert K. Mciver and Marie Carroll (Critical NOTES)
- Author : Journal of Biblical Literature
- Release Date : January 22, 2004
- Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines,Books,Professional & Technical,Education,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 213 KB
Description
Robert K. McIver and Marie Carroll recently published in this journal the results of an experiment involving forty-three students, in which three groups were asked to write on six of eight topics. (1) The first group was instructed to write a brief summary (less than a page) about the first two topics without consulting any written sources. For the second two topics, they were permitted unlimited reading of a prepared written source but had to return the source before writing their summary. (They were permitted to use the wording of the source, however, if they remembered it.) For the third pair of topics, they were permitted to use and retain the written source and to borrow from it for their summaries. The second and third groups of students were instructed to do the same with these same topics, but with the procedures regarding the use or nonuse of a written source applied at different times so as to produce writings on the same topic according to all three procedures. In this way, McIver and Carroll sought to determine what the phenomenon of sequential agreement might tell about an author's reliance upon oral and written sources. Ultimately, they hoped that this information might shed light on the composition of the Gospels. McIver and Carroll found that the summaries written without the use of a source (a source that existed but was not distributed to all the students) agreed with the source for 5.0% of the wording and averaged a maximum of 2.45 words in sequential order; summaries written after reading and returning a source agreed with the source for 15.3% of the wording and averaged a maximum of 5.43 words in exact sequence; and summaries for which a written source was retained while writing agreed with that source for 28.4% of its words, with their longest word sequences averaging 12.6 words. (2) The real focus, as stated above, was the length of sequential agreements. McIver and Carroll write: