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In his article Bailey identifies three distinct
types of oral tradition models. There is, for
example, “informal uncontrolled oral
tradition,” which Bailey attributes to Bultmann.
Then there is the “formal controlled oral
tradition,” the view of oral tradition held by
Birger Gerhardsson. In this view there is an
established hierarchical delineation between teachers and students. The tradition,
furthermore, is strictly controlled. Bailey notes that these two types of oral tradition can readily
be observed in the modern Middle East. Rumors or gossip that normally circulated in society
are reminiscent of “informal uncontrolled oral tradition.” There is no care for control or who
transmits the message. The “formal controlled tradition” of Gerhardsson is also still evident “in
the memorization of the entire Qur’an by Muslim sheiks and in the memorization of various
extensive liturgies in Eastern Orthodoxy.”
The third category is the one that Bailey proposes as the model that accurately depicts
the oral transmission of the Jesus tradition in the early Christian Church. Just as the other two
types of oral transmission models, Bailey’s model, which he dubs “informal controlled oral
tradition,” also still exists in the Middle East. Bailey describes the haflat samar, an event where
poetry and stories are shared by villagers. Observing the way the haflat samar works, Bailey
was able to surmise that oral tradition, as with the story telling of the villagers, was “informal
controlled tradition.”