The first Christians didn’t learn their faith from the Bible
because none of the books of the New Testament had been written yet. This is
evident in Paul thanking the Corinthians for “maintain[ing&91; the traditions even as I have
delivered them to you” (1 Cor. 11:2),
and instructing his disciple Timothy,“what you have heard from me before
many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also”
(2 Tim. 2:2).
Paul thanked the Thessalonians for accepting his preaching,
not as human words, but as the very words of
God (1 Thess. 2:13). In his second letter to this community
he told them to “stand firm
and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth
or by letter” (2 Thess.
2:15).
Sacred Tradition is not
the same as customs that
can change over time,like
manner of dress or style of worship
(or “tradition”
with a lowercase “t”).Tradition (with a capital “T”)
refers to the word of God that is “handed on”
or “delivered.”It does not change even though our understanding of it
grows over time, in the same way our understanding of Scripture grows
over time.
In the second century, St. Irenaeus wrote,
“While
the languages
of the world are diverse, nevertheless, the authority of the tradition is one
and the same.” He also asked his readers, “What
if the apostles had not in fact left writings to us? Would it not be necessary
to follow the order of tradition, which was handed down to those to whom they
entrusted the churches?”
Traditions of Men?
Some Christians object to the idea of Sacred
Tradition because they believe Jesus condemned it. They refer to the time when
Jesus told the Jewish leaders, “For
the sake of
your tradition, you have made void the word of God”
(Matt. 15:6). But in this case Jesus was
condemning a particular man-made tradition
that was contrary to one of God’s commandments.
Specifically, Jesus criticized the tradition of applying a sacrificial offering of money,called korban,
to the Temple instead of using
the money to support
one’s elderly
parents. This tradition contradicted the Fourth Commandment, which says“Honor
your father and mother.”
However, Jesus
did not reject religious tradition as
a whole because he told his disciples to obey the Jewish leaders because they sat on something called “Moses’
seat” (Matt. 23:2-3). This was not an actual chair but a
term that referred to a Jewish tradition, not found in Scripture, about the Jewish leaders’ teaching authority. In fact, prior to his Ascension
into heaven
Jesus never commanded the apostles to write anything down. Instead, their
mission was to preach the gospel and the word of
God continued to be passed down in oral tradition even after the New Testament was
written.
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