2
these events orally. The final step, as described by Dei Verbum,
was the actual process of writing the gospels. It is worth noting, as
it pertains to the discussion of oral tradition, that the document
outlines the method used by the evangelists in authoring their
final version of their gospels.
The sacred authors wrote the four Gospels, selecting some things from the many
which had been handed on by word of mouth or in writing, reducing some of
them to a synthesis, explaining some things in view of the situation of their
churches and preserving the form of proclamation but always in such fashion
that they told us the honest truth about Jesus. (DV 19)(Emphasis mine)
This statement by the conciliar document is important inasmuch as it indicates the
recognition by the Church that the prehistory to the gospels was comprised of an important
oral component as well as a written one. This should not be that hard to believe considering the
large span of time between the death and Resurrection of Christ and the first written gospel. If
the death and Resurrection of Jesus occurred in the early to mid-30’s CE as most believe and
the first gospel, Mark, was written between 65 and 75 CE,2 there was a span of 35-45 years
between the life of Jesus and the first gospel account of his life and death. During this span
there certainly would have been oral transmission of important material in the Jesus tradition.
In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he makes mention of the tradition of the Eucharist (1 Cor
2
James A. Brooks, Mark, vol. 23, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers,
1991), 28.