Was the Bible transmitted by oral tradition?

from the old testament

• The Old Testament books were generally written in the present tense. Rather than being old-fashioned story traditions, told as a “once upon a time” fairytale, they were written about actual historical events and words from the Lord that were happening at the time of their writing. For example, Moses recorded Israel’s wilderness journey as it unfolded (Exodus 17:14; Numbers 33:2), presenting God’s commands and the people’s responses as real-time events. The prophets also wrote in the immediacy of their own day—Isaiah spoke of the Assyrian threat to Judah (Isaiah 7:17), Jeremiah recorded the destruction of Jerusalem as it happened (Jeremiah 39:1–2), and Amos warned Israel of present injustices (Amos 5:11–12). These writings show that the Old Testament was not composed as distant folklore but as living testimony of God’s actions in history, witnessed and preserved by those directly experiencing them (Deuteronomy 31:9, 24–26).

from the new testament

• Modern historians consider Luke to be an excellent source of historically accurate information. The Gospel of Luke relays physical eyewitnesses' experiences (Luke 1:1–4), which indicates that parts of the book could be counted as "oral transmission." Many of these same stories in Luke’s Gospel are also relayed in Mark’s Gospel, which was written prior to Luke’s, such as the feeding of the five thousand (Mark 6:30–44; Luke 9:10–17) and Peter’s confession of Christ (Mark 8:27–30; Luke 9:18–20). This overlap demonstrates that the Gospel writers drew from shared eyewitness testimony and faithfully transmitted it, rather than inventing new traditions.
• "Oral tradition" is hardly a possibility when it comes to the Gospel of Mark, which is estimated to have been written near AD 55—shortly after Christ’s earthly life.
• Most of Paul’s epistles predate the Gospels, showing that the message of Christ was already being proclaimed and circulated in written form within decades of the resurrection. When Paul describes the core of the Christian faith in 1 Corinthians 15:3–8—Christ’s death for our sins, His burial, resurrection, and post-resurrection appearances—he emphasizes that he “received” this teaching when he converted, only a few years after the resurrection (Acts 9). This shows not a slow development of “oral tradition,” but rather rapid and faithful oral transmission of eyewitness testimony. For example, Paul cites over five hundred witnesses to the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:6), many of whom were still alive at the time, inviting verification. The early dating of Mark and Paul’s epistles confirms that the message of Christ was not shaped by layers of myth or evolving tradition but preserved through immediate, direct testimony from those who saw and heard Jesus firsthand (Luke 1:1–2; 2 Peter 1:16).
• When Jesus spoke, He would sometimes quote from the Old Testament Scriptures. It is good for us to be familiar with the Scriptures so we have a better understanding of God and of His will. Jesus discouraged the Pharisees' use of oral tradition in their interpretation of the Law of Moses, however (see Mark 7:6–9). This is because they used oral tradition to spin the Scriptures their own way to make the Law say what they wanted it to, rather than focusing on what God was actually saying through those Scriptures.

implications for today

Oral transmission was not uncommon in a day and age when the majority of people were unable to read or write. Because oral transmission was a normal thing, it was generally a reliable method of conveying information because accuracy was considered to be extremely important. Written transmission is best for preserving accuracy over a long time period, and evidence proves that the books of the Bible were penned in written form very early on.

It is important to remember that the Bible is not a collection of vague myths or evolving legends. Instead, the Bible is based on factual records rather than oral traditions. These factual records are rooted in history and carefully preserved through both oral and written transmission. We can trust that the truths we read today are the same ones God revealed to His people thousands of years ago. That means we are not building our lives on shifting stories but on a firm and trustworthy foundation (2 Timothy 3:16–17; Matthew 24:35).