Discussion Jumpstarter
Study leader reference - not a definitive answer
Question 6
The speaker challenges Catholic/Orthodox use of “tradition” in 2 Thessalonians 2 by arguing the Greek can mean “ordinance, precept, or doctrine,” and that Paul means what apostles taught “in the beginning”—how would early Christians have distinguished apostolic tradition from later “human and novel institution,” and what would they expect modern Christians to do with that distinction?
Another way to ask: How do you think early Christians could tell the difference between what the apostles taught at the start and later human-made teachings, and what should Christians today do with that difference?
Discussion Jumpstarter
Direct Answer
The transcript suggests early Christians distinguished true tradition by its direct connection to Jesus and the apostles and by refusing “anything new as doctrine.” They would expect modern Christians to return to what was “handed down… from the beginning” and reject later innovations that cannot be shown to be apostolic.
- He notes “tradition” can mean “ordinance, precept, or doctrine,” not necessarily centuries of accumulated custom.
- He asks what Paul meant: not “what our church has taught for centuries” but “what the apostles taught in the beginning.”
- Early Christian witness: “in addition to what has once been committed to us by the apostles, a disciple of Christ ought to receive nothing new as doctrine.”
- Polycarp: “forsaking… false doctrines, let us return to the word… handed down to us from the beginning.”
- Cyprian stresses continuity with Christ: bishops should “maintain… the tradition of the Lord and do not, by human and novel institution, depart from that which Christ… prescribed and did.”
- He ties this to his main test: doctrine must align with the “consistently believed” apostolic faith.