Roman Catholics are sometimes bewildered by our insistence on looking only to the Bible as a source of religious authority. Doesn't more than a millenium of theological tradition mean anything to us, they wonder. Other Roman Catholics are not even aware that most of their church's religion cannot be found in the Bible but is instead derived from this tradition.
Roman Catholicism makes no pretense of regarding the Bible as uniquely inspired. A Question and Answer Catholic Catechism says, "The Bible and Sacred Tradition are of equal authority because they are equally the word of God." Similarly, The Baltimore Catechism (1929) claims,
The church does not depend on the Bible alone . . . . CATHOLIC TRADITION ranks equal with the Bible. Tradition comprises truth of our faith, not written down in the Bible. Tradition is found recorded in the decrees of Councils, Liturgical books, Creeds, Monuments and in the writings of the Fathers.
Let us examine this notion of tradition as a source of authority, and let us begin by seeing how the term tradition is used in scripture when it is mentioned favorably. Paul exhorted the Corinthians saying, "hold fast the traditions, even as I delivered them unto you" (1 Corinthians 11:1). Notice that the traditions which were favorable were so favorable that they were to be held fast. They were not to be set aside after a period of time and modernization.
On the other hand, Jesus spoke of the Jews' tradition as the means by which they made void the word of God (Mark 7:12). Obviously, this is an example of bad tradition.
What is the difference? Colossians 2:8 shows us that bad tradition is that which originates with men, and is therefore "not after Christ." As we contemplate the Bible and the traditions that have evolved over the last two thousand years, we wish to discern what is from Christ, and what is from man and therefore "not after Christ."
We will assume that it is generally conceded by those who believe in Jesus that the Bible embodies those traditions described in 1 Corinthians 11:1. But what are we to think of other traditions? Are they not after Christ? Or are we to expect a continuing process of revelation to keep up with the times?
Now just here, there is a significant point to be made. We are concerned with the validity of the notion that there are two sources of religious authority: One stagnant (The Bible), and the other fluid and evolving (decrees of councils, church leaders, and the like). Well there existed just such a notion in the first century, among the Jews, and Jesus commented on it.
The Old Testament contains all those writings and only those writings which, in Jesus' day, were regarded by the Jews as sacred scripture. One popular way of categorizing these writings was to divide them into three categories, "the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the psalms" (Luke 24:44). The most recent of these had been written four hundred years before the time ofChrist. There were other things being written by Jews, things of a religious character, but none were regarded as the Word of the Lord. However, as time passed, a body of tradition grew up which, though never regarded as Holy Scripture, came to carry as much or more weight as what was known to be the word of God. This came to be known as the "tradition of the elders" (Matthew 15:2). Subsequent to the time of Jesus, these tradtions came to be written down, and comprised the Talmud.
In both Matthew 15 and Mark 7, there is recorded the story of Jewish displeasure with Jesus' disciples for not adhering to these tradtions. (Today, it would be as if the clerics became upset with certain ones who did not strictly follow the teaching of the church.) There was in this tradition a regulation concerning washing before eating. As Mark explains it,
For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thus observing the traditions of the elders; and when they come from the market place, they do not eat unless they cleanse themselves; and there are many other things which they have received in order to observe, such as the washing of cups and pitchers and copper pots. (Mark 7:3-4)
When some of these Jews complained to Jesus because his disciples failed to observe these traditions, Jesus responded by quoting from Isaiah, indicating that the Jews were at fault for "teaching as doctrines the precepts of men" (Matthew 15:9 , Mark 7:7). Then he said to them, "Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men." And again, he said to them, "You nicely set aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition" (Mark 7:8-9).
Notice the distinction maintained by Jesus: The two sources of religious authority were not equal. One was from God, the other from men.
The Jews were at fault for obeying the latter rather than the former. Jesus then cited an example supporting his charge. God's word said, "Honor your father and your mother" (Mark 10:10, quoted from Exodus 20:12). But there was a provision in the tradition of the elders for declaring some personal property to be dedicated to God. The property was declared to be "Corban" (Mark 7:11). It had come to be the practice among Jews for a man to evade the responsibility to provide for the needs of elderly parents by means of this tradtion. A man with elderly parents in need would simply say, "That wherewith thou mightest have been profited by me is Corban." In other words, he couldn't give his parents the goat, or the proceeds from its sale, because the goat or the money was dedicated to God. Of course, Jesus condemned all of this.
The essential point is that God had revealed his will. It was written down, and what was written down was just as valid in Jesus' day as it was the day it was written. Anything else, oral tradition, elders' rules, statements by religious leaders, these were all merely "precepts of men" and not "the word of God."
Today, there is that which was written hundreds of years ago, and which is, at least officially, regarded by Catholics and Protestants alike as the word of God. But the Catholic Church is built upon traditions that have developed since the writing of those scriptures, just as first century Judaism was built upon the tradtions of the elders.
But perhaps, someone may think, the New Testament was never intended to be a once and for all sort of revelation. In fact, it was intended to be exactly that. The faith preached in the first century was "once for all delivered unto the saints" according to Jude 3. And it must have been so else Paul's warning in Galatians 1:8 against any other message than that previously taught would have been ludicrous. Paul wrote:
But though we, or an angel form heaven, should preach unto you any gospel other than that which we preached unto you, let him be anathema.
The gospel preached today by the Catholic church is very much different than that preached in the first century, and admittedly so. The situation is exactly as it was in the case of the Jews whose religious practice was based on the "tradition of the elders". The traditions to which the Catholic church appeals are not the word of God.