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Binding Oral Tradition (Video Transcript)

Binding Oral Tradition (Video Transcript)

Last updated on: June 13, 2026 at 1:07 pm by Dave Armstrong

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Binding Oral Tradition (Video Transcript) 2026-06-13T13:07:43-04:00 Dave Armstrong

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

This is the written transcript of the initial presentation (minus our discussion) of the video for Catholic Bible Highlights, Did Jesus Teach Things That Aren’t in the Bible? (YES! And so did the Prophets and Apostles!) (8-16-25).

Summary: We examine the many evidences for oral tradition in the New Testament, explain the concept, and summarize some fascinating Old Testament data regarding the Oral Torah.

It’s certainly not clear that Paul’s oral teaching must be the same as what is in his written letters, or that it couldn’t contain things not found there. We can reasonably deduce from later patristic testimony, and the biblical data that Paul’s oral teaching would be harmonious with his teaching now preserved in the written text of the Bible; but it also would almost certainly have contained some things not explicitly found in his letters (or maybe anywhere in the Bible).

For example, we know that Paul argued and reasoned and did evangelism in the synagogues and other public places. The amount of words involved must have included topics either not covered or only briefly covered in his New Testament epistles. Acts 19:8 tells us that he taught in one synagogue for “three months”, and from Acts 19:10 we know that he taught in one place “daily” for two years.

It was the same with Jesus. Mark 4:33 (RSV), states that “With many such parables he spoke to them.” In other words, there were more than what were recorded. In 6:34 we learn that “He began to teach them nay things” – none of which were preserved in writing. And in John 16:12 we see Jesus saying, “I have yet many things to say to you.” John 20:30 bluntly proclaims: “Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book.” 21:25 even asserts that “there are also many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”

He exaggerates, but plainly, there was and is a lot of oral tradition. And how about all that Jesus said to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, after He rose? Luke informs us that “beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” Imagine having a commentary that recorded all of that!

If the Protestant says we are not bound to anything not found explicitly in Scripture, we might ask him where we find this requirement in the Bible, and why we should think ourselves in a better (or different) place than the earliest Christians, before the New Testament was compiled. Paul and the other apostles give no evidence whatever that pre-New Testament Christians were less-prepared or equipped than we “Bible Christians” today are. If anything, the opposite is the case. Much of sola Scriptura hangs on this assumed premise that isn’t even remotely to be found in the Bible. How ironic that is!

The Bible makes it abundantly clear in many places that oral tradition is an authentic binding category of teaching. In 1 Thessalonians 2:13 Paul refers to “the word of God which you heard from us” and in 2 Timothy 1:13-14 he notes “the sound words which you have heard from me.” In 2 Timothy 2:2 he sums it all up: “what you have heard from me before many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”

The Apostle John in his first and second epistles echoes these thoughts. In 1 John 1:5 he writes about “the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you”; in 2:24, “Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you,” and in 3:11, “this is the message which you have heard from the beginning.” Similarly, in 2 John 1:6 he refers to “the commandment, as you have heard from the beginning, . . .”

ORAL TORAH

What Moses was commanded to pass on to his Hebrew flock is not identical to the written words that he recorded in the first five books of the Old Testament: known as the “Torah” or “the Pentateuch.” The Jews believed that he also received what’s called “an oral Torah” on Mt. Sinai, when God gave him the Ten Commandments. The mainstream pharisaic tradition passed into early Christianity, since St. Paul called himself a Pharisee twice, after he converted (Acts 23:6; 26:5), and Jesus opposed the doctrine of the Sadducees, but not that of the Pharisees (Mt 23:2). The Pharisees adhered to the oral Torah but the Sadducees didn’t.

The Bible gives several “hints” about this. The 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia (“Oral Law”) provides some examples:

It appears from the other books of the Old Testament also that certain traditional laws were considered to have been given by God, although they are not mentioned in the Pentateuch. Jeremiah says to the people (Jer. 17: 21-22): “Bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers.” In the Pentateuch, on the other hand, there is only the interdiction against work in general (Ex. 20:9-11); nor is it stated anywhere in the Torah that no burdens shall be carried on the Sabbath, while Jeremiah says that the bearing of burdens, as well as all other work, was forbidden to the fathers. It is clear, furthermore, from Amos 8:5, that no business was done on the Sabbath, and in Neh. 10:30-32 this prohibition, . . . is designated as a commandment of God, . . .

God made this requirement, that He “commanded” the ancient Hebrews in the oral Torah given to Moses, binding, under pain of Jerusalem being destroyed:

Jeremiah 17:27 . . . if you do not listen to me, to keep the sabbath day holy, and not to bear a burden and enter by the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem and shall not be quenched.

They “did not listen” and didn’t “hear and receive instruction” (Jer 17:23), so Jerusalem was destroyed for sins not even condemned in the written Law (only the oral Torah).

In the written Torah, sacrifices were not permitted anywhere but in the tabernacle (Lev 17:1-5). But, strikingly, the prophet Samuel continued to sacrifice at the “high places” (1 Sam 9:12-13): seemingly contrary to Leviticus 17:8-9; 26:30. Assuming the rightness of his sacrifices (the immediate context doesn’t indicate otherwise), we must posit an additional oral law that he was aware of.

Surprisingly, the written Torah never specified that Jerusalem would be the central place of worship, or that a temple was to be built there. The word “temple” (i.e., a building) never appears. The Torah doesn’t call for or even predict a permanent house for God to dwell in, and for animal sacrifices to take place.

Jesus’ teaching on lust in the Sermon on the Mount was derived from the oral Torah. He stated:

Matthew 5:27-28 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

The written Torah had never stated this. Jesus, therefore, appears to be drawing from the oral commandments that Moses received on Mt. Sinai, “Not only is he who sins with his body considered an adulterer, but he who sins with his eye is also considered one.” [Leviticus Rabba 23:12].

The same thing applies to His teachings on prayer. Jesus taught His disciples not to “heap up empty phrases” or use “many words” when they prayed (Mt 6:7), and to not give up or lose heart praying for something they really needed (Lk 18:1-6). Calculating and babbling were forbidden by the oral Torah [Babylonian Talmud, Berekhot 32b], and like Jesus advising His disciples to keep asking God for righteous requests in prayer, the oral Torah likewise stated, “If a man realizes that he has prayed and not been answered, he should pray again” [Babylonian Talmud, ibid.].

We conclude, then, that the oral Torah is implied by the written biblical record. Binding oral was nothing new, and was continued in the New Testament, as we have seen.

Related Books

100 Biblical Arguments Against Sola Scriptura (Nov. 2011 / 10 May 2012 / second revised edition: Aug. 2025, 127 pages)

Pillars of Sola Scriptura: Replies to Whitaker, Goode, & Biblical “Proofs” for “Bible Alone” (July 2012 / Sep. 2012, 310 pages)

Related Articles

Biblical Evidence for Apostolic Oral Tradition [2-20-09]

Biblical Evidence for the Oral Torah [10-18-11]

Dialogue on Oral Tradition & Apostolic Succession (vs. John E. Taylor) [5-17-17]

Anglican Newman on Oral & Written Apostolic Tradition [10-12-19]

Oral Tradition According to Great Historic Apologists [10-18-19]

Vs. James White #14: Word of God / the Lord Usually Oral (+ White’s Own Erroneous Definition of Sola Scriptura in 1990 (at the same time I got it right) [11-18-19]

In the Bible, “Word of God” Usually Means Oral Proclamation [National Catholic Register, 12-17-19]

Oral Tradition: More Biblical (Pauline) Evidence (. . . and an Examination of the False and Unbiblical Protestant Supposed Refutation of “Inscripturation”) [2-27-21]

The One-Legged Stool Called ‘Inscripturation’ is Not Taught in the Bible [National Catholic Register, 3-15-21]

“Catholic Verses” #3: Tradition, Pt. 1 (Including the Church Fathers’ Opinion Regarding Authoritative Apostolic Oral Tradition) [10-26-23]

Reply to James White on Oral Tradition [5-13-24]

Vs. Geisler on Catholicism #6: Sola Scriptura 1 (Including Inscripturation; 2 Timothy 3:16; Is Only the Bible Inspired?; Oral Torah) [7-11-25]

Biblical Evidences for the Oral Torah [8-6-25]

Related Web Pages

Bible, Tradition, Canon, & “Sola Scriptura”

Jews, Judaism, and the Old Testament

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