Finding a lost sheep - human memory, oral tradition and the historical Jesus

The differences between parallel passages in the gospels - both in the canon and between the canon and 'Gospel of Thomas' have traditionally been attributed to scribal redaction, with significant energy having been devoted to a determination of which is the "original" or "more authentic" version. This paper examines how work on oral transmission, human memory and (to a lesser extent) social memory theory affect our understanding of how the similarities and differences between gospel parallels in general may have come about, examines their implications for historical Jesus studies, and applies the findings to the parable of the lost sheep as it appears in Matthew, Luke and Thomas. It concludes that, while it is possible that differences were introduced due to authorial redaction, this is not the only possible source of variation. At least some of the differences between gospel parallels could be the result of the normal processes of human memory, including slippage over the oral transmission period and/or to Jesus having used variations of certain stories in different contexts.