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Apostolic Tradition: 28 Passages in Paul’s Epistles

Apostolic Tradition: 28 Passages in Paul’s Epistles

Last updated on: January 29, 2025 at 8:22 pm by Dave Armstrong

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Apostolic Tradition: 28 Passages in Paul’s Epistles 2025-01-29T20:22:45-04:00 Dave Armstrong

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Including Incisive Commentary from the Anglican Tractarian John Keble (1792-1866)

Photo credit: Portrait of John Keble (1792-1866) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons]

Excerpts are from Primitive Tradition Recognised in Holy Scripture (London: Rivington: 1839), by John Keble (page numbers in green). I use RSV for biblical citations.

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1 Corinthians 11:1-2 Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. [2] I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I have delivered them to you. (cf. Acts 15:27)

2 Corinthians 10:11 Let such people understand that what we say by letter when absent, we do when present.

Colossians 2:6-8 As therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so live in him, [7] rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. [8] See to it that no one makes a prey of you by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ.

2 Thessalonians 2:15 So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter.

2 Thessalonians 3:6-7 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. [7] For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us . . . (cf. Acts 2:42: “they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching”)

2 Timothy 1:12-14 . . . I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me. [13] Follow the pattern of the sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus; [14] guard the truth that has been entrusted to you by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.

2 Timothy 2:2 and what you have heard from me before many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

A diligent eye may detect, in St. Paul’s Epistles, many traces of the like use of language current sayings, or senses of words, or formula, which the Apostle only just alludes to, as well known to all his readers. For instance, the expression, “This is a faithful saying,” which occurs repeatedly in these latter Epistles, indicates, in all probability, so many Christian proverbs, familiar in the mouths of that generation of believers. (p. 14)

There was a certain set of ” sayings” current among the Christians of that time, to which any allusion or appeal, however brief, would be presently understood. (p. 15)

1 Timothy 1:15 The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And I am the foremost of sinners;

1 Timothy 3:1 The saying is sure: If any one aspires to the office of bishop, he desires a noble task.

1 Timothy 4:8-9, 11 . . . godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. [9] The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance. . . . [11] Command and teach these things.

2 Timothy 2:11-13 The saying is sure: If we have died with him, we shall also live with him; [12] if we endure, we shall also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; [13] if we are faithless, he remains faithful — for he cannot deny himself.

Titus 3:5-8 he saved us, not because of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in virtue of his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit, [6] which he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, [7] so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life. [8] The saying is sure.

Nor will it be hard to find examples of single words, which had evidently acquired by that time a Christian sense; so that, even when used absolutely, they could only be taken by Christians in a particular relation . . . [which] conveyed to Christian ears in those days a peculiar and definite, I had almost said, a technical, meaning. (p. 15)

Romans 6:17 . . . the standard of teaching to which you were committed,

Ephesians 3:4-5 . . . the mystery of Christ, [5] which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit;

1 Thessalonians 5:19-21 Do not quench the Spirit, [20] do not despise prophesying, [21] but test everything; hold fast what is good,

1 Timothy 1:3-4 . . . charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, [4] nor to occupy themselves with myths and endless genealogies which promote speculations rather than the divine training that is in faith;

1 Timothy 1:18 This charge I commit to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophetic utterances which pointed to you, that inspired by them you may wage the good warfare,

1 Timothy 6:12, 14 Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. . . . [14] I charge you to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ;

1 Timothy 6:20 O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you. . . .

Titus 1:3 and at the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by command of God our Savior;

Upon the whole we may assume with some confidence that the good tiling loft in Timothy’s charge, thus absolutely to be kept at all events, was the treasure of apostolical doctrines and church rules : the rules and doctrines which made up the charter of Christ’s kingdom.

The next question to be settled is, whether the precept in the text apply literally to us: i. e. in other words, whether we have yet in our possession the identical deposit which St. Paul left with Timothy. For, if we have, mere natural piety would teach us to reverence and guard it as he was required to do. Some will reply to this question at once, We have the Holy Scriptures, and we know for certain that they contain all that is important in Timothy’s trust. These would resolve the custody of the good deposit into the simple duty of preserving the Scriptures incorrupt, and maintaining them in their due estimation among Christians. (pp. 19-20)

Must it not be owned, on fair consideration, that Timothy’s deposit did comprise matter, independent of, and distinct from, the truths which are directly Scriptural? that it contained, besides the substance of Christian doctrine, a certain form, arrangement, selection, methodizing the whole, and distinguishing fundamentals; and also a certain system of church practice, both in government, discipline, and worship; of which, whatever portion we can prove to be still remaining, ought to be religiously guarded by us, even for the same reason that we reverence and retain that which is more properly scriptural, both being portions of the same divine treasure [?]

To these conclusions we are led by the consideration, first, that the truths and rules committed to Timothy’s charge were at the time almost or wholly unwritten. This is clear from the very date of the Epistles which mention that charge: the latest of which must have been composed many years before St. John’s gospel, and in the first of them the deposit in question is spoken of, not as an incomplete thing on its progress towards perfection, but as something so wholly sufficient, so unexceptionably accurate, as to require nothing but fidelity in its transmitters. [1 Tim 1:3; 6:14, 20] (p. 21)

The holy writings themselves intimate, that the persons to whom they were addressed were in possession of a body of truth and duty, totally distinct from themselves and independent of them. Timothy, for instance, a few verses after the text, is enjoined to take measures for the transmission, not of holy Scripture, but of the things which he had heard of St. Paul among many witnesses [2 Tim 2:2]. The Thessalonians had been exhorted to hold the traditions which they had received, whether by word or apostolical letter [2 Thess 2:15]. They could not be exhorted to hold the Christian Scriptures, since at that time in all probability no Christian Scriptures yet existed, except perhaps St. Matthew’s gospel. Much later we find St. Peter declaring to the whole body of Oriental Christians, that in neither of his Epistles did he profess to reveal to them any new truth or duty, but to “stir up their minds by way of remembrance of the commandment of the Apostles of the Lord and Saviour” [2 Pet 3:1]. St. John refers believers, for a standard of doctrine, to the word which they had heard from the beginning [1 Jn 2:24] and intimates that it was sufficient for their Christian communion if that word abode in them. If the Word, the Commandment, the Tradition, which the latest of these holy writers severally commend in these and similar passages, meant only or chiefly the Scriptures before written, would there not appear a more significant mention of those Scriptures; something nearer the tone of our own divines, when they are delivering precepts on the Rule of Faith? As it is, the phraseology of the Epistles exactly concurs with what we should be led to expect: that the Church would be already in possession of the substance of saving Truth, in a sufficiently systematic form, by the sole teaching of the Apostles. As long as that teaching itself, or the accurate recollection of it, remained in the world, it must have constituted a standard or measure of Christian knowledge, . . . (pp. 21-23)

Another way tradition is seen in Paul’s letters is in his expression, paradidomi (“deliver”):

1 Corinthians 11:23-25 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, [24] and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” [25] In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” (cf. 11:2 above, at the top)

1 Corinthians 15:3-8 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, [4] that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, [5] and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. [6] Then he appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. [7] Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. [8] Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. (cf. 2 Pet 2:21; Jude 3)

Related to that is the use of paralambano (“received”):

1 Corinthians 15:1 Now I would remind you, brethren, in what terms I preached to you the gospel, which you received, . . . (cf. 11:23; 15:3 above; Acts 8:14; 17:11)

2 Corinthians 11:4, 6-7 For if some one comes and preaches another Jesus than the one we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you submit to it readily enough. . . . [6] Even if I am unskilled in speaking, I am not in knowledge; in every way we have made this plain to you in all things. [7] Did I commit a sin in abasing myself so that you might be exalted, because I preached God’s gospel without cost to you?

Galatians 1:9, 11-12 As we have said before, so now I say again, If any one is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed. . . . [11] For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not man’s gospel. [12] For I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

Philippians 4:9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, do; and the God of peace will be with you.

1 Thessalonians 2:9, 13-14 . . . we preached to you the gospel of God. . . . [13] And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. [14] For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus which are in Judea; . . . (cf. 2 Thess 3:6 above; 1:6 [different Greek word translated “received”])

Surely, in whatever respect any tradition is really apostolical, to think lightly of it must be the same kind of sin, as if those unlearned and remote Christians, of whom Irenaeus speaks, had thought lightly of the New Testament when it came to be propounded to them. We see at once in what manner sincere reverence for God’s truth would lead them to treat the portions of His written word, as they were brought successively under their notice. If we will be impartial, we cannot hide it from ourselves, that His unwritten word, if it can be any how authenticated, must necessarily demand the same reverence from us ; and for exactly the same reason: because it is His word.

But, further: the fact is clearly demonstrable from Scripture, that as long as the canon of the New Testament was incomplete, the unwritten system served as a test even for the Apostles’ own writings. Nothing was to be read, as canonical, except it agreed with the faith delivered once for all to the first generation of the saints. The directions of St. Paul on this subject are perfectly clear, and without reserve. “Though we or an angel from heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be anathema.” (p. 26)

Galatians 1:6-8 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and turning to a different gospel — [7] not that there is another gospel, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. [8] But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we preached to you, let him be accursed.

I do not see how we can be wrong in inferring, from these and similar passages, that the faith once for all delivered to the saints, in other words, Apostolical Tradition, was divinely appointed in the Church as the touchstone of canonical Scripture itself. No writing, however plausible the appearance of its having come from the Apostles, was to be accepted as theirs, if it taught any other doctrine than what they at first delivered: rather both it and its writers were to be anathema.

This use of apostolical tradition may well correct the presumptuous irreverence of disparaging the Fathers under a plea of magnifying Scripture. Here is a tradition so highly honoured by the Almighty Founder and Guide of the Church, as to be made the standard and rule of His own divine Scriptures. The very writings of the Apostles were to be first tried by it, before they could be incorporated into the canon. Thus the Scriptures themselves, as it were, do homage to the tradition of the Apostles; the despisers, therefore, of that tradition take part, inadvertently or profanely, with the despisers of the Scripture itself. (pp. 27-28)

The doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture is nowhere expressly affirmed in Scripture itself. (p. 29)

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Photo credit: Portrait of John Keble (1792-1866) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons]

Summary: I examine the many ways in which St. Paul refers to apostolic and oral tradition, in 28 passages from his epistles, with commentary from Anglican John Keble (1792-1866).

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