What kind of socio-rhetorical approach can enact these insights about the inner texture of the Gos. Thom. in the form of a full-fledged socio-rhetorical program of analysis and interpretation? At this point, the Progymnasmata of Aelius Theon of Alexandria and Hermogenes of Tarsus give remarkable assistance (Butts 1987; Hock and O'Neil 1986; Robbins 1993b). Analysis of these rhetorical treatises brings into prominence the interaction among questions, if-(then) statements, when-(then) statements, rationales, negatives, commands, authoritative testimony, and narrative story in traditions attributed to authoritative individuals in Late Antiquity. Questions arise in contexts of possibilities (if) and probabilities (when). Possibilities and probabilities need reasons (rationales, premises, presuppositions) to support them, and these reasons need to be clarified in contexts where people explore what does and does not seem to be the case and what a person should and should not do. Thus, negatives as well as positives, including negative and positive commands, are necessary to clarify what should and should not be thought and done. In the context of questions and responses that contain reasons, clarifications, and commands, people seek support in authoritative testimony both in the present and the past, and this invites stories both from the present and the past.

Rather than attempt to give a glimpse of analysis of each of the phenomena in the Gos. Thom. named above, it has seemed better to focus on one phenomenon only " questions. A focus on questions alone can exhibit important dimensions of the gospel tradition, as a recent paper by Jerome H. Neyrey that merges social-scientific and rhetorical insights has shown (Neyrey forthcoming). The purpose in this present essay is to begin a socio-rhetorical analysis of gospel tradition that includes the Gos. Thom. Analysis of questions is only an initial step, but it is a step into one of the prominent rhetorical features of the gospel tradition. Rhetorical treatises from Late Antiquity show us that questions are an important phenomenon in contexts where sayings and actions of authoritative individuals transmit specific cultural values, attitudes, and dispositions. When questions are present, they may take the form of (1) a rhetorical question that simply advances the assertions of the speaker; (2) a simple question that only requires a "yes" or "no," (3) an inquiry that seeks specific information, or (4) a question that calls for an explanation, a reason "why" (cf. Hock and O'Neil 1986: 85-87). The Gos. Thom. contains thirty simple or compound questions in twenty sayings (see Appendix 1). Jesus asks sixteen of the questions, disciples ask twelve questions, and Mary and Salome each ask one question. The nature of these questions and the responses to them are important indicators of the "culture" they transmit. Comparing the questions in the Gos. Thom. with the questions in the canonical Gospels is an important beginning point for identifying the "resources"² that played a role in the "cultural configuration" that was enacted in the environments where Gospels were written and portions of them were performed either "by memory" or "by reading aloud" in various contexts in early Christianity.

Five of the rhetorical questions in Gos. Thom. are close variants of Q tradition (for all the questions and their parallels, see Appendix 1):

²It is important to change one's vocabulary from "sources" to "resources" when one is discussing orally transmitted tradition. I am grateful to J. D. H. Amador and James D. Hester for this insight. Back