We got it backwards...

[O]ral and communal culture is more than background to supplement our understanding of ancient texts; it is foreground. Orality is fundamentally a different worldview. If we fail to appreciate ancient communicative processes and do not make room for the uniqueness of oral culture, then we put our understanding of ancient texts in jeopardy.—The Lost World of Scripture, pages 185-186

<idle musing>
As usual, we get it backwards. The foreground is really the background and what we see as the background, usually ignored, is the real foreground. The result? Bad exegesis and faulty theology.
</idle musing>