<P> You are probably familiar with the old birthday party game "telephone ." A group of kids sits in a circle, the first tells a brief story to the one sitting next to her, who tells it to the next, and to the next, and so on, until it comes back full circle to the one who started it . Invariably, the story has changed so much in the process of retelling that everyone gets a good laugh . Imagine this same activity taking place, not in a solitary living room with ten kids on one afternoon, but over the expanse of the Roman Empire (some 2,500 miles across), with thousands of participants--from different backgrounds, with different concerns, and in different contexts--some of whom have to translate the stories into different languages (see box 3.1). </P> <P> Modern scholars have concluded that the Canonical Gospels went through four stages in their formation: </P> <Ol> <Li> The first stage was oral, and included various stories about Jesus such as healing the sick, or debating with opponents, as well as parables and teachings . </Li> <Li> In the second stage, the oral traditions began to be written down in collections (collections of miracles, collections of sayings, etc .), while the oral traditions continued to circulate </Li> <Li> In the third stage, early Christians began combining the written collections and oral traditions into what might be called "proto - gospels"--hence Luke's reference to the existence of "many" earlier narratives about Jesus </Li> <Li> In the fourth stage, the authors of our four Gospels drew on these proto - gospels, collections, and still - circulating oral traditions to produce the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John . </Li> </Ol> <Li> The first stage was oral, and included various stories about Jesus such as healing the sick, or debating with opponents, as well as parables and teachings . </Li>

What are the three forms of oral tradition in the new testament times