Introduction

The distinctiveness of structure and argument which has been found to characterize several aphoristic sayings-collections of the double tradition leads one to infer the existence of a unique circle of people who formulated these collections. It is unlikely that such a pattern of collection and argument is due to accident or coincidence during the transmission of the traditions. Because many isolated aphoristic sayings of the double tradition can also be shown to share some of these argumentative functions, and because of some overlap with the themes of the aphoristic collections, it seems also that the activity of this circle of early Christians extended beyond the compilation of collections alone. Indeed, if such a circle existed it would be surprising if its activity were limited to a set of seven collections of Jesus' logia alone.

How much more widely, however, was this sapiential activity exerting its influence in the formulation of the Jesus-tradition? It is doubtful that this question can be answered directly, yet there are some clear indications as to where one might investigate further. On the one hand, M. Boring argues that early Christian teachers in general were often not far removed from prophets: that is, they often seemed to have a charismatic function as well as employing the natural gifts of learning. While few would doubt that the ‘teacher’ must have played an important role in early Christianity, the figure itself is remarkably poorly defined. This makes distinctions between different types of teachers difficult to verify.