Oral tradition is not corrupted over time.
I tried reading the article, but it’s written like a catechism and seems to be splitting fine logical points.
The headline itself is worth expanding. We’re accustomed to outsourcing our memory to written words. We don’t have the experience of maintaining a text through speech and sound. We assume that oral memory is easy to ruin, while written words are indelible. This may be true at the level of words and symbols, but it’s emphatically false at the level of meaning.
Traditions maintained by a strong culture can last for thousands of years. Mutual editing and proofreading keep the meaning in place while words adjust to fit modern dialects and jargons. If I miss a point while reciting a well-known story, someone will correct me. “That ain’t the way I heard it!”
After a tradition is uploaded to written “laws”, it is immediately available for manipulation by evil rulers. This definitely happened to the old scriptures after they were entrusted to committees of courtiers. The courtiers edited the text and deleted some of the books to please their bosses. After the entrustment, mutual editing no longer worked.
We’re seeing an excellent modern example now. After the “rights” of women were yanked out of “primitive” traditions and entrusted to the courtiers, the courtiers redefined women to include men in wigs. Now a man in a wig can steal “rights” and jobs and athletic achievements from women, and the women can’t complain.
Polistra's Mill 