Apostolic Tradition

Deus, in adjutorium meum intende. Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina.
O God, come to my assistance. O Lord, make haste to help me.

Here we go. Why do Catholics insist that Scripture is not the only rule of Faith? First, since the Bible was not put together as a "book" in the first couple of centuries of Christianity, we know that hearing through preaching, not reading through writings, was the main way to spread Christ's word. Second, I have yet to find in the Scriptures where it says that they are the sole source of Faith. If one believes that if it isn't written in the Bible, it isn't legitimate, then how can it be that the Bible doesn't say "Only in this book will you find true faith?" And how could the preaching and writing of the apostles themselves and their early successors be legitimate if they weren't consulting a "Bible?"

On the contrary, although we guard against "human" tradition, the Bible itself tells us, for instance in St. Paul, 1 Cor. 11:2, "I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I have delivered them to you". To the Thessalonians , 2, 2:15, he says, "So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter." Then in Thessalonians 2, 3:6, "Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is living in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us."  He further tells 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.
Of course, he was telling Timothy that there needed to be successors to the Apostles who would continue to preach the word.

We read the early Church Fathers, links in the progression of successors, that they recognized that the traditions handed down were to be preserved. Eusebius wrote Church History in the year 312 A.D. He writes of Papias in the early second century "...affirms that he received the sayings of the apostles from those who accompanied them, and he, moreover, asserts that he heard in person Aristion and the presbyter John." He writes of others in that same era: "from them has come down to us in writing, the sound and orthodox faith received from tradition."

Irenaeus, in the century after Christ, wrote much about the Faith, and is credited with being first to call Christians, Catholic, meaning a universal faith.  There is much he wrote about tradition. I will note just a bit from his book, Against Heresies,189 A.D.  "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?"  And "It is possible, then, for everyone in every church, who may wish to now the truth, to contemplate the tradition of the apostles which has been made known throughout the whole world. And we are in a position to enumerate those who were instituted bishops by the apostles and their successors to our own times..."

Remember again, there was no canon of the Bible. This was early days in the life of the Church.
Origen, in 225 A.D., wrote in his Fundamental Doctrines, "Although there are many who believe that they themselves hold to the teachings of Christ, there are yet some among them who think differently from their predecessors. The teaching of the Church has indeed been handed down through an order of succession from the apostles and remains in the churches even to the present time. That alone is to be believed as the truth which is in no way at variance with ecclesiastical and apostolic tradition."

There are so many more quotes from early Fathers of the Church. I will end this, though, with that great Saint Augustine in his Letter to Januarius in 400 A.D. In those first centuries, rituals, prayers and services had become well established. "But in regard to those observances which we carefully attend and which the whole world keeps, and which derive not from Scripture but from Tradition, we are given to understand that they are recommended and ordained to be kept, either by the apostles themselves or by plenary (ecumenical) councils, the authority of which is quite vital in the Church."

May 27, 2015