סוד השרידות של עם ישראל

1. Broad conditions stated.
   1. The tradition should be supported by an unbroken series of witnesses, reaching from the immediate and first reporter of the fact to the living mediate witness from whom we take it up, or to the one who was the first to commit it to writing.
   2. There should be several parallel and independent series of witnesses testifying to the fact in question.
2. Particular conditions formulated.
   1. The tradition must report a public event of importance, such as would necessarily be known directly to a great number of persons.
   2. The tradition must have been generally believed, at least for a definite period of time.
   3. During that definite period it must have gone without protest, even from persons interested in denying it.
   4. The tradition must be one of relatively limited duration. [Elsewhere, Garraghan suggests a maximum limit of 150 years, at least in cultures that excel in oral remembrance.]
   5. The critical spirit must have been sufficiently developed while the tradition lasted, and the necessary means of critical investigation must have been at hand.
   6. Critical-minded persons who would surely have challenged the tradition — had they considered it false — must have made no such challenge.

Other methods of verifying oral tradition may exist, such as comparison with the evidence of archaeological remains.

כתבת: "כל האמצעים בהם משתמשים במקצוע זה סבירים והגיוניים לגבי ספרות ומסמכים, וכמעט חסרי משמעות לגבי טקסטים עלפעאיים"

אם יש כל כך הרבה אמצעים כאלו, אנא פרט אמצעי אחד כזה והסבר מדוע הוא הגיוני לגבי טקסט כתוב שנמסר בנאמנות ולא לגבי טקסט בע"פ שנמסר בנאמנות.