RH>>I'm not sure exactly when Mike first began to talk about certain
> signals of systematic arrangement that he has identified in CGth,
> but I confess that I was initially skeptical about the whole
> business. Eventually I conceded that, yes, perhaps there **is**
> some evidence of an orderly compositional structure in the text.
> At that time I hypothesized that **if** the text **was** assembled
> according to some preconceived design concept, that perhaps the
> text was used for ceremonial purposes by some particular community.


IMO you might consider the idea that this "purpose" might have be related to
the idea of early evangelism where disciples went far and wide to "spread
the good news". It would have been rather handy to have such a list if one
was "on the road" as an evangelist, and there are stories of Jesus sending
his disciples to teach in various villages. Of course this might even
suggest that if it is a very early document, it could even be "original
material" which predates the formalized Gospels of various communities.
It's a fairly radical idea perhaps, but it seems to fit the evidence to some
degree, at least IMO.


[Michael Mozina]
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