Originally posted by DeepThoughtActually I am fairly sure sonship was talking about the New Testament. It came up with reference to whether or not Jesus said what is recorded in the gospels.
At the time the first surviving Gospel, Mark's, was written down there were still people around who could claim to be eye-witnesses. So the New Testament does not count as an oral tradition, since it did not have to be passed down generations without writing. The bits of the bible we are interested in are those parts of the Old Testament which pre-date its writing in 500 B.C..