Oral Performance, Popular Tradition, and Hidden Transcript in Q

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?