Friedman's study of Bava Metzia VI leads him to propose a different model. The two manuscript families exhibit contrasting textual patterns - GH a conservative tradition and FM a freer and creative one. But both are offshoots of an earlier, fully formulat ed text, inherited by both. FM's tradents altered the original text only in small units of several words at a time, leaving the major structure intact. A baraita is glossed according to the Tosefta.
Technical terminology is introduced or improved in clari ty.
In the second part of this paper, Friedman responds to a critique, based on the oral transmission model, of his original study. His response demonstrates the use of the fixed text plus style - editing model. It is the term in ra bbinic literature which refers to a collection of statements by different sages, thought to share a common view. Thi s study addresses only the second type. It flowered again in Babylonian academies in the generation of Abbaye and Rava and their disciples.