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| Preface | |
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| Introduction | |
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| The Old Testament World of Composition and Communication | |
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| Ancient Near Eastern societies were hearing-dominant and had nothing comparable to authors and books as we know them | |
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| Expansions and revisions were possible as documents were copied generation after generation and eventually compiled into literary works | |
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| Effective communication must accommodate to the culture and nature of the audience | |
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| The Bible contains no new revelation about the workings and understanding of the material world | |
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| Stepping Back and Summing Up: How the composition of the Old Testament may be understood differently in light of what is known of ancient literary culture | |
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| The New Testament World of Composition and Communication | |
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| Much of the literature of the Greco-Roman world retained elements of a hearing-dominant culture | |
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| Oral and written approaches to literature entail significant differences | |
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| Greek historians, philosophers, and Jewish rabbis offer instructive examples of ancient oral culture | |
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| Jesus' world was predominantly non-literate and oral | |
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| Logos/Word referred to oral communication, not to written texts | |
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| Jesus proclaimed truth in oral forms and commissioned his followers to do the same | |
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| Variants were common in the oral texts of Jesus' words and deeds | |
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| Throughout the New Testament the primary focus was on spoken rather than written words | |
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| Exact wording was not necessary to preserve and transmit reliable representations of inspired truth | |
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| Stepping Back and Summing Up: How the composition of the New Testament may be understood differently in light of what is known of ancient literary culture | |
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| The Biblical World of Literary Genres | |
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| The Authority of Old Testament narrative literature is more connected to revelation than to history | |
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| The authority of Old Testament legal literature is more connected to revelation than to law | |
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| The authority of Old Testament prophetic literature is more connected to revelation than to future-telling | |
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| The genres of the New Testament are more connected to orality than textuality | |
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| Concluding Affirmations on the Origin and Authority of Scripture | |
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| Scripture confirms its fundamental oral nature | |
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| Scripture asserts its divine source and illocution | |
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| Inerrancy has its strengths and weaknesses | |
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| Belief in authority not only involves what the Bible is but also what we do with it | |
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| Faithful Conclusions for Virtuous Readers | |