Memory meets introduction. A new look at old questions

Starting with cultural-scientific research on family albums and what they have in common with the New Testament, this paper invites us to reflect upon what changes when we look at questions of New Testament introduction through the lens of social memory theory. Building on the research of Oral History and Cultural Memory Theory, it is argued that general introduction (allgemeine Einleitung) falls into the realm of cultural memory, while special introduction (spezielle Einleitung) falls into the realm of social/collective memory, and that both are divided by the floating gap. This, in turn, explains some of the developments of the first half of the second century. In the next step, the paper combines a model building on the three-generational-memory, the generational gap (after one generation), the floating gap (after three to four generations), and the first generations of Jesus-followers, with conventional suggestions for dating New Testament books and draws first conclusions from this synopsis. It turns out that the genres used before and after the generational gap exhibit different characteristics, which fit scholarly expectations for media of social and collective memory. The paper closes with general questions about media and media changes in the New Testament, i.e. orality and scribality, identical texts and textual criticism, the canon as the primary context, the extension of the scope and genre-fluidity, concluding that social memory theory does indeed provide new perspectives for New Testament introduction.