Scripture and Tradition in Early Christianity

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book III Direct teaching

Since the Scriptures have been interpreted with such faithfulness, by the grace of God, and because of this, God has prepared and renewed our faith in His Son and preserved for us the pure Scriptures in Egypt—where the house of Jacob thrived, escaping the famine in Canaan, and where our Lord was preserved when He fled from Herod's persecution—and because this interpretation of these Scriptures was made before our Lord's descent to earth, and before the Christians appeared (for our Lord was born around the forty-first year of Augustus's reign, but Ptolemy lived much earlier, during whose time the Scriptures were interpreted)—truly, these people are shown to be brazen and audacious, who now wish to create different translations, when we refute them using these Scriptures and lead them to believe in the coming of the Son of God. But our faith is steadfast, sincere, and the only true one, having clear proof from these Scriptures, which were interpreted as I have described, and the preaching of the Church is unaltered. For the apostles, being older than all these heretics, agree with this mentioned translation; and the translation aligns with the tradition of the apostles. For Peter, Jo

Tertullian, De Corona Direct teaching

If, for these and similar rules, you insist on having a direct command from Scripture, you will find none. Tradition will be set before you as their source, custom as what strengthens them, and faith as what keeps them. You will either see for yourself, or learn from someone who has, that reason supports tradition, custom, and faith. Meanwhile, you should believe that there is some reason to which submission is due. I add one more case, because it is proper to show you how it was among the ancients also. Among the Jews, it is so usual for their women to have the head veiled that they may be recognized by it. In this instance, I ask for the law. I set the apostle aside. If Rebecca at once drew down her veil when, in the distance, she saw her betrothed, this modesty of a mere private person could not have made a law. Or it would have made it only for those who had the reason she had. Then let virgins alone be veiled, and this when they are coming to be married, and not until they have recognized their destined husband. If Susanna also, who was subjected to unveiling at her trial, provides an argument for the veiling of women, I can say here also that the veil was voluntary. She had c

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book III Direct teaching

The blessed apostles, having established and built up the Church, entrusted the role of the episcopate to Linus. Paul mentions Linus in the Epistles to Timothy. Anacletus succeeded him, and after him, Clement became the bishop, third in line from the apostles. This man, having seen and interacted with the blessed apostles, still had their preaching echoing in his ears and their traditions before his eyes. He was not alone in this, for many others remained who had received instructions from the apostles. During Clement's time, a significant disagreement arose among the brethren in Corinth, and the Church in Rome sent a powerful letter to the Corinthians. This letter exhorted them to peace, renewed their faith, and declared the tradition recently received from the apostles, proclaiming the one omnipotent God, the Maker of heaven and earth, the Creator of man, who caused the deluge, called Abraham, led the people out of Egypt, spoke to Moses, established the law, sent the prophets, and prepared fire for the devil and his angels. From this document, anyone who wishes may learn that He, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, was preached by the Churches and may also understand the apostol

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book III Direct teaching

1. Since, therefore, the tradition from the apostles does thus exist in the Church, and is permanent among us, let us revert to the Scriptural proof furnished by those apostles who did also write the Gospel, in which they recorded the doctrine regarding God, pointing out that our Lord Jesus Christ is the truth, and that no lie is in Him.

Origen, De Principiis (On First Principles) Direct teaching

so, seeing there are many who think they hold the opinions of Christ, and yet some of these think differently from their predecessors, yet as the teaching of the Church, transmitted in orderly succession from the apostles, and remaining in the Churches to the present day, is still preserved, that alone is to be accepted as truth which differs in no respect from ecclesiastical and apostolic tradition.

Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata (Miscellanies) Direct teaching

Well, they preserving the tradition of the blessed doctrine derived directly from the holy apostles, Peter, James, John, and Paul, the sons receiving it from the father (but few were like the fathers), came by God's will to us also to deposit those ancestral and apostolic seeds.

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book II Direct teaching

The Universal Church, moreover, through the whole world, has received this tradition from the apostles.

Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies Supporting witness

Galatians 5:3 In other respects, however, these consent to all the traditions delivered to the Church by the Apostles.

Cyprian, Epistles Supporting witness

5. For which reason you must diligently observe and keep the practice delivered from divine tradition and apostolic observance, which is also maintained among us, and almost throughout all the provinces;

Cyprian, Epistles Supporting witness

Whence is that tradition? Whether does it descend from the authority of the Lord and of the Gospel, or does it come from the commands and the epistles of the apostles?

2 Thessalonians 2:15 Direct teaching

So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.

1 Corinthians 11:2 Direct teaching

Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the traditions just as I delivered them to you.

Tertullian, De Corona Direct teaching

If no passage of Scripture has prescribed it, assuredly custom, which without doubt flowed from tradition, has confirmed it.

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book IV Direct teaching

The tradition of the elders, which they claimed to follow from the law, was actually against the law given by Moses. This is why Isaiah declares: “Your dealers mix the wine with water,” indicating that the elders corrupted a pure command of God by mixing it with their flawed tradition. They established a false law opposing the true law, as the Lord pointed out when He asked them, “Why do you violate the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?” They disregarded God’s law not only by directly transgressing it, but also by opposing it with their own law, which is still known today as pharisaical. In this law, they omit certain things, add others, and interpret some as they see fit, used by their teachers individually. Wanting to uphold these traditions, they refused to submit to the law of God, which prepares them for the coming of Christ. They even criticized the Lord for healing on the Sabbath, which, as I have already mentioned, was not forbidden by the law. They themselves, in a way, performed acts of healing on the Sabbath when they circumcised a man on that day, but they did not criticize themselves for breaking God’s command through tradition and the aforementioned p

Cyprian, Epistles Direct teaching

...might be received into communion; and if there is only one baptism, which is with us and within the Church, and is given by God's gracious condescension to the Church alone, then what stubbornness is this, or what presumption, to prefer human tradition to divine ordinance? Why do they not observe that God is indignant and angry whenever human tradition loosens and sets aside the divine commands, as He cries out and says through Isaiah the prophet, "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. But in vain they worship me, teaching the doctrines and commandments of men." Isaiah 29:13 Also, the Lord in the Gospel, in the same way rebuking and reproving, declares and says, "You reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your own tradition." Mark 7:13 Remembering this command, the blessed Apostle Paul also warns and instructs us, saying, "If any man teaches otherwise, and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and with His doctrine, he is proud, knowing nothing." From such a man withdraw yourself. 1 Timothy 6:3-5

Cyprian, Epistles Supporting witness

...Church. On this matter, as far as the strength of my faith and the holiness and truth of the divine Scriptures direct me, I answer that heretics and schismatics have no power or right at all. For this reason, Novatian should not be, nor can he be, regarded otherwise, since he too is outside the Church and acts against the peace and love of Christ, and so is counted among adversaries and antichrists. For when our Lord Jesus Christ declared in His Gospel that those who were not with Him were His adversaries, He did not point out any particular kind of heresy, but showed that all who were not with Him, and who did not gather with Him but were scattering His flock, were His adversaries. He says, "He that is not with me is against me, and he that gathers not with me scatters." Moreover, the blessed Apostle John himself made no distinction of heresy or schism, nor did he list any as specially set apart. Instead, he called all who had gone out from the Church and acted against the Church antichrists, saying, "You have heard that Antichrist comes, and even now many antichrists have come; therefore we know that this is the last time. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if

Tertullian, On Prescription Against Heretics Direct teaching

Since this is the case, in order that the truth may be adjudged to belong to us, as many as walk according to the rule, which the church has handed down from the apostles, the apostles from Christ, and Christ from God, the reason of our position is clear, when it determines that heretics ought not to be allowed to challenge an appeal to the Scriptures, since we, without the Scriptures, prove that they have nothing to do with the Scriptures.

Origen, Commentary on Matthew Background

...ians 9:20, what is strange about the Apostles, whose whole manner of life was spent among the Jews, using a spirit of accommodation, even though they understood the spiritual meaning in the law? Paul also did this when he circumcised Timothy, Acts 16:3, and offered sacrifice in keeping with a certain legal vow, as it is written in the Acts of the Apostles. Again, they seem eager to make accusations, because they have no charge to bring against the disciples of Jesus concerning a commandment of God, but only concerning one tradition of the elders. And this love of accusation is shown especially in the fact that they bring the charge in the presence of the very people who had been healed from their sickness. In appearance they were speaking against the disciples, but in reality they intended to slander their Teacher, because it was a tradition of the elders that washing the hands was something necessary for piety. For they thought that the hands of those who did not wash before eating bread were defiled and unclean, but that the hands of those who washed with water became pure and holy, not figuratively, but in direct agreement with the law of Moses according to the letter. But le

Mark 7:13 Direct teaching

Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.

Mark 7:9 Direct teaching

He said to them, “ All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.

Matthew 15:3 Supporting witness

But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?

Origen, Commentary on Matthew Direct teaching

...whether between the Old Scriptures and the New, or the Law and the Prophets, or the Gospels and the Apostolic Scriptures, or the Apostolic Scriptures with each other. For also, according to the Preacher, all the Scriptures are words of the wise, like goads and like nails firmly fixed, which were given by agreement from one shepherd, Ecclesiastes 12:11, and there is nothing unnecessary in them. But the Word is the one Shepherd of rational beings. To those who do not have ears to hear, these things may seem to disagree, but they are really in perfect harmony. For just as the different strings of the psalter or the lyre each give its own sound, and one sound seems different from another, a man who is not musical and does not understand the principle of harmony thinks they are out of harmony because the sounds are different. In the same way, those who are not trained to hear the harmony of God in the sacred Scriptures think that the Old is not in harmony with the New, or the Prophets with the Law, or the Gospels with one another, or the Apostle with the Gospel, or with himself, or with the other Apostles. But the man who comes instructed in the music of God, being wise in word and d

Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata (Miscellanies) Direct teaching

And what you hear in the ear — that is, in a hidden manner, and in a mystery (for such things are figuratively said to be spoken in the ear)— proclaim, He says, on the housetops, understanding them sublimely, and delivering them in a lofty strain, and according to the canon of the truth explaining the Scriptures;

Dionysius of Alexandria, Miscellaneous Fragments Supporting witness

...ht at once to begin their festival joy and gladness. But in what you wrote to me, you showed very clearly, and with an intelligent understanding of the Holy Scriptures, that they do not seem to give any exact statement of the hour when He rose. For the Evangelists describe differently the people who came one after another to the tomb, and all declare that they found the Lord already risen. Matthew says it was at the end of the Sabbath. John writes that it was early, while it was still dark. Luke says it was very early in the morning. Mark tells us it was very early in the morning, at the rising of the sun. So no one has shown us clearly the exact time when He rose. It is admitted, however, that those who came to the tomb at the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, found that He was no longer lying in it. And let us not suppose that the Evangelists disagree or contradict one another. Even if there seems to be some small difficulty in the matter we are asking about, they all agree that the Light of the world, our Lord, rose on that one night, though they differ about the hour. So we may rightly try, with a wise and faithful mind, to bring their

Tertullian, On Prescription Against Heretics Supporting witness

For wherever it shall be manifest that the true Christian rule and faith shall be, there will likewise be the true Scriptures and expositions thereof, and all the Christian traditions.

Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Background

and if we have omitted any, be so prudent as to select the most valuable out of the Holy Scriptures, and confirm yourselves with them, rejecting all things that are evil, that so you may be found holy with God in eternal life.

Acts 17:11 Direct teaching

These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.

1 Timothy 4:13 Direct teaching

Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.

John 5:39 Direct teaching

Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.

Romans 15:4 Background

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.