Introduction

In the synoptic tradition aphoristic sayings can be found either in ‘clusters’ (small collections) or in more isolated usage. It has been argued that if one is looking for evidence of a sapiential activity within the synoptic tradition, then the small collections are the obvious place to begin. It is with these that one is most likely to be able to investigate compositional activity, because one has a sustained employment of aphoristic sayings. Much more difficult to analyse and synthesize are isolated instances of an aphorism introducing or serving as a climax to an anecdote, such as one finds in the rabbinic literature. H. A. Fischel observes that in the rabbinic literature proverbs no longer generally appear in extensive collections for instruction, in contrast to the Book of Proverbs or Sirach. Fischel traces these shorter aphoristic formulations to Western influences, as distinct from the more traditional Eastern accumulations of aphoristic sayings. But where one does still find small collections, as in the double tradition particularly, there one may well have evidence also of a ‘collector’ guided by particular motives and interests.

The predilection of form criticism for the study of individual pericopes has frequently been at the cost of the study of collections of Jesus' sayings. Even the recognition of small and early collections of sayings has seldom been matched by much progress in explaining how these collections came into being and what functions they originally served.