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5-Memory and Tradition in the Hellenistic Schools
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113 Loveday Alexander Memory and Tradition in the Hellenistic Schools Chapter 5 Critical attention on Birger Gerhardsson’s Memory and Manuscript has focused largely on the parallels between early Christian practice and the practice of the rabbinic academies. But Gerhardsson points out that the appeal to tradition is also a feature deeply rooted in the Hellenistic world, “in schools for philosophers, rhetoricians, lawyers and even doctors!”1 In this paper I intend to explore this neglected insight, examining Justin’s allusions to the “Apomnemoneumata of the Apostles” in the light of ancient school practice in the Hellenistic world. Gerhardsson and the Collegium apostolorum “History is what you can remember,” said the authors of that very English work of comic genius, 1066 And All That,2 more truly perhaps than they knew: for as the raw material of history increases in bulk, we are more conscious than ever that the virtual databanks of information are just that, not history but raw data, inert and inoperative until retrieved and reactivated as part of a living memory system. And in an era when information is treated as a form of technology, it is salutary to be reminded that the prime carriers of information between one human generation and another—even in the modern university—are 114 B Loveday Alexander still people. Even (perhaps increasingly) in a technological age, social memory—the events and mechanisms that serve to pass on social capital from one generation to another—is vital for the well-being of all forms of human society.3 The reinstatement of memory as a core activity in the construction of early Christianity is one of the lasting contributions of Gerhardsson’s work, and it is a privilege to be associated with this tribute. The particular area of Gerhardsson’s work that I want to focus on is the role of the collegium apostolorum as described in Memory and Manuscript, chapter 14, and especially on the Lukan understanding of the “ministry of the Word” (ἡ διακονία τοῦ λόγου) as the essential apostolic task: The principal tasks of the Apostles were to pray and to serve the Word. The latter task, διακονία τοῦ λόγου, seems to be practically identical with what Luke calls διδαχὴ τῶν ἀποστόλων. By this is meant, not mere proclamation, but teaching: a doctrinal work based on the Scriptures and the tradition of Christ. This work with the logos was regarded by the early Church as being of such vital importance, and has such scope, that on one definite occasion the Apostles were solemnly exempted from certain other tasks, important in themselves, in order that they might be able to concentrate uninterruptedly—“night and day,” metaphorically speaking—on that task and on prayer.4 As Gerhardsson rightly observes, the post-Easter task of the apostles is very carefully defined in Luke–Acts. Their central task is the ministry of the word, διακονία τοῦ λόγου, and this is a task that requires both disciplined attentiveness and the voluntary shedding of other responsibilities (Acts 6:1-6).5 From this point on, the apostles follow a more and more narrowly defined role in Acts, a role distinct from both the ἐκκλησία and the elders. In its initial stages, their ministry is tied closely to Jerusalem—though even the Jerusalem apostles adopt an increasingly itinerant role from chapter 8 onward.6 But they continue to provide a key link between the fast-expanding church and the story and teachings of Jesus: the apostles in Acts are the prime (though not the sole) bearers of the Jesus tradition. Although the form critics tended to speak of the apostolic task in terms of kerygma, “preaching,” the key verbs Luke uses to describe their activity are “bearing witness” and “teaching.”7 The medieval illuminators who depicted the apostles in the early chapters of Acts as a “school of Christ” were following a sound exegetical instinct.8 It is implicit in the whole structure of Luke’s story that the apostles are themselves disciples (μαθηταί, students) of the one teacher, Jesus, and that their task is to pass on his teaching, not their own.9 Hence this explains the central [54.227.136.157] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 14:32 GMT) Memory and Tradition in the Hellenistic Schools B 115 importance for Luke’s whole structure of the instruction given by the risen Christ to the disciples in Luke 24 and Acts 1. The content of this instruction is not spelled out in detail, but there is a clear implication that it forms the basis of the teaching Luke presents through the...