The gemara (Megilla ad loc) says it was forgotten and Onkeles restored it.
Does that apply to everything else as well? For example, were R. Tarphon’s opinions in the Mishna forgotten until he “restored” them? Or were they transmitted down throughout the generations and then when young Tarphon was learning in Bais Midrash he must have said to himself “Oh, I guess I’ll have to hold like this when I get older…?”
The Wolf