Paradosis, an important Greek word, part 02

OK, reread the verses from yesterday. What differentiates a good tradition from a bad tradition? Well, just going by the verses from Scripture, the only difference was whether the tradition was taught by the Apostles or whether the tradition was taught by the Pharisees. Yes, I am oversimplifying but not as much as you may think. Look again at the verses.

I have heard too many sermons that speak as though any tradition is automatically suspect. I have also read about how “human” traditions are automatically wrong. But, that is not what the verses say. The verses that are against tradition do, indeed, speak about the tradition of the elders and “your” tradition. But, the verses in favor of tradition only say that Christians ought to faithfully keep the traditions which the apostles have taught. There is obviously an assumption that those traditions are acceptable to God, but notice that there is no claim that each and every tradition was taught to them directly by Our Lord Jesus Christ.

We know from many sources that the early Christians simply adopted the prayer structure of the synagogue, adapted it for the changes in Christian theology, and tacked on the Lord’s Supper to the end of it. You find traces of that in Scripture where Acts talks about how they met for the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers, a structure that has basically continued through this day.  Details that are kept to this day by Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant, such as the reading of Scripture right before the sermon can be seen in the Gospels when Our Lord Jesus is at a synagogue, and date to before His time. I could go on, but you get the idea. The worship of the Church was not a direct invention of Our Lord nor of the Apostles but was an adaptation of patterns of worship that existed before the advent of Our Lord, an adaptation guided by the Holy Spirit.

In fact, the apostles do not even bother to spell out every tradition! They simply ask the recipients of their epistles to remember to keep every tradition as it was taught them whether in writing or verbally. There is no claim in the New Testament that every tradition has been written down within the pages of the New Testament. There is no claim in the New Testament that only what is found within the pages of the New Testament may be used in worship. There is no claim in the New Testament that  we are free to worship as we will. In fact, the only claim in the New Testament is that you ought not to be taken captive by the wrong tradition but that you must keep the right tradition. The St. Paul who jumped on the Colossians and Galatians for being taken captive by the wrong tradition is the same St. Paul who jumps on the Corinthians for having failed to keep the traditions that he taught them and is the same St. Paul who commends the Thessalonians for having correctly kept the traditions and is the same St. Paul who instructs St. Timothy to make sure to train a few good men to whom he can pass on what he has received so that they can pass it on to others. The issue for St. Paul is not tradition itself, rather it is correct tradition versus incorrect tradition.

I would suggest that this is a long way from the Anabaptist claims about tradition and worship, and certainly a long way from the post-modern megachurch that claims the right to alter the worship in any way they see fit so long as they are “reaching people for Christ.” But, I would make a further suggestion. The expectation of Our Lord Jesus is that the Holy Spirit would come and lead the Church into Truth. No, I am not going to make the Roman Catholic claim about a Pope or about a teaching Magisterium. The Orthodox do not think that way. But, I will say that in the Ecumenical Councils and in the development of the worship and in the final approval of the books of the New Testament one sees a fulfillment of that promise once made.

The Holy Spirit did lead the Church into Truth. Because of the Church, we have the New Testament preserved and whole. All Christians agree on the same New Testament. Because of the Church, we have doctrinal truth preserved in the Ecumenical Councils (yes, I understand the arguments about the Seventh, and I know that the Oriental Orthodox only accept the first three).  All Christians agree on the Trinity, the two natures and one person of Jesus, and the tenets of the Nicene Creed,  whether Protestant or Oriental Orthodox. Because of the Church, we have patterns of appropriate worship preserved, and, yes, I would claim that many Protestants, but not all, are being quite disobedient to the Holy Spirit and to the apostles.

The consistent claim of the Early Church, from the Didaché to the Apostolic Canons to the various synods is that the Church has received a tradition which must be preserved. This is the same claim made by St. Paul in the New Testament. We could certainly argue about various “traditions,” and whether they truly were taught by the apostles. We could certainly argue about whether the Church has faithfully preserved Holy Tradition to this day. We could certainly argue about whether the tradition we received should be adjusted for this or that circumstance. But, to argue that there was no tradition passed on, or to argue that it is legalism to claim that we have a tradition that must be kept, or to argue that all tradition is written down in Scripture, or to argue that the Church may not “require” a tradition unless it be clearly written in Scripture all goes against what is written in the New Testament itself.