Guard the Good Deposit: Holding Fast to the Apostolic Tradition

In his Second Letter to Timothy, St. Paul gives his disciple a charge that has shaped the Church ever since: "Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us" (2 Timothy 1:13-14, NKJV). Some modern translations render the second sentence as a command to guard the good deposit, the wording of this article's title. Something had been handed over, and the one who received it was to keep it intact and pass it on.

Many Christians hear the word "tradition" with suspicion, as if it meant human habits that grew up around the gospel and smothered it. Jesus Himself warned against "the tradition of men" (Mark 7:8). Yet the same New Testament commands believers to "hold the traditions" they were taught (2 Thessalonians 2:15) and praises a church for keeping them "just as I delivered them to you" (1 Corinthians 11:2).

This article examines that apostolic tradition from Scripture and the earliest Fathers, shows how it differs from later customs, and weighs the Protestant objection, sola scriptura (Latin for "Scripture alone": the principle that Scripture is the only final rule of faith). Without the apostolic faith, Christians are left to fall for anything.

In brief

The New Testament uses the language of handing on (paradosis, "tradition") for the gospel, for the Eucharist, and for the teaching Paul gave his churches by word and by letter. It calls this teaching a "deposit" (parathēkē) to be guarded by the Holy Spirit and committed to faithful men who will teach others, and shows leaders appointed by the laying on of hands. Clement of Rome, Polycarp and Irenaeus describe the same pattern: a public faith, handed down openly in the apostolic churches, which is the key for reading Scripture rightly. St. John Chrysostom, the Seventh Ecumenical Council and St. John of Damascus read Paul's command to hold the traditions "by word or our epistle" the same way. Not everything old is apostolic; the Fathers distinguished the deposit from changeable customs and sometimes disagreed about which was which. Many Protestants who hold sola scriptura honor the creeds and the Fathers, so the disagreement is narrower than it looks, but it is real: can Scripture be rightly read apart from the Church's received faith?

Thesis: Scripture itself commands Christians to hold fast to a tradition received from the apostles and guarded in the Church by the Holy Spirit; the Orthodox Church reads the Bible within that living tradition, while distinguishing it from merely human customs.

Tradition is a Bible word

The Greek noun paradosis means "handing down, bequeathing, transmission," and also "that which is handed down," a tradition or teaching.¹ The New Testament uses it in two directions. Jesus rebukes "the tradition of men" that set aside the commandment of God (Mark 7:8). Paul uses the same word as a command: "Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle" (2 Thessalonians 2:15).² One tradition came from men and contradicted God's word; the other came from the apostles and carried it.

The Fathers read 2 Thessalonians 2:15 at face value. St. John Chrysostom, preaching on the verse, drew the conclusion: "Hence it is manifest, that they did not deliver all things by Epistle, but many things also unwritten, and in like manner both the one and the other are worthy of credit. Therefore let us think the tradition of the Church also worthy of credit."³ In the eighth century St. John of Damascus, in his Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, cites the same verse, with 1 Corinthians 11:2, to show "that the Apostles handed down much that was unwritten."⁴

He also tells the Thessalonians to "withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which he received from us" (2 Thessalonians 3:6). The same vocabulary runs through 1 Corinthians. Paul introduces the words of institution of the Eucharist with the formula of handing on: "For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you" (11:23). He presents the gospel in the same terms: "For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures" (15:3). {{very-strong: Paul describes the gospel and the Eucharist as things he "received" and "delivered," and he commands his churches to hold the traditions they were taught by word and by letter.}} Even scholars who doubt that Paul wrote some of the letters attributed to him treat 1 Corinthians as his own, so this is the earliest layer of the Christian record.⁵

A deposit to be guarded

The Pastoral Letters (1 and 2 Timothy and Titus) add a second image, the "deposit of faith." Paul twice tells Timothy to guard the parathēkē: "O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust" (1 Timothy 6:20), and "That good thing which was committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us" (2 Timothy 1:14). In ordinary Greek a parathēkē was "anything entrusted to one," a deposit left in someone's keeping.⁶ A deposit is not improved or traded; it is kept safe and returned whole.

The deposit has a shape, "the pattern of sound words," a definite body of teaching that can be recognized. And it is kept "by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us." Then Paul describes how the deposit moves through time: "And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also" (2 Timothy 2:2). Four links appear in one sentence: Paul, Timothy, faithful men, and others after them.

Laying on of hands

The New Testament shows how those teachers were put in place. Paul and Barnabas "appointed elders in every church, and prayed with fasting" (Acts 14:23). Paul tells Titus, "For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you" (Titus 1:5). He warns Timothy, "Do not lay hands on anyone hastily, nor share in other people's sins; keep yourself pure" (1 Timothy 5:22). Guarding the deposit and guarding the ministry went together.

{{debated: Most critical scholars hold that the Pastoral Letters were written in Paul's name after his death, while others defend Paul's authorship.}} One textbook summary states: "Most scholars agree that Paul did not write the Pastoral Epistles."⁷ Donald Guthrie, defending the traditional view, concluded that "it seems more reasonable to regard the Pastorals as true products of the mind of Paul."⁸ The Orthodox Church receives them as Paul's; either way, they show how the early Church understood its task.

The letter of the Roman church to Corinth known as 1 Clement, which Irenaeus places in the time of Clement, the third bishop of Rome after the apostles, describes the same chain. "The apostles have preached the gospel to us from the Lord Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ [has done so] from God." The apostles appointed "bishops and deacons" and "afterwards gave instructions, that when these should fall asleep, other approved men should succeed them in their ministry."⁹ Irenaeus said Clement "might be said to have the preaching of the apostles still echoing [in his ears], and their traditions before his eyes."¹⁰ Clement uses "bishops" and "presbyters" for the same leaders, and historians debate how quickly a single bishop led each city; that concerns the form of the ministry, not the fact of succession. The site's guide to apostolic succession in the early Church and the succession lists treat the details.

Abiding in what was heard from the beginning

St. John meets false teaching with the same answer: "Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father" (1 John 2:24). In his second letter he warns, "Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God" (2 John 9).

St. Jude urges his readers "to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3). The Greek for "delivered" (paradotheisē) belongs to the same family as paradosis, and "once for all" (hapax) rules out a faith that must be rediscovered or supplemented in each age. See the site's article The Apostolic Faith: Once for All Delivered.

St. Polycarp of Smyrna, whom Irenaeus describes as "instructed by apostles," urged the Philippians: "let us return to the word which has been handed down to us from the beginning."¹¹ The Didache, an early Christian manual of teaching, tells the believer: "you shall keep what you have received, neither adding thereto nor taking away therefrom."¹²

When the question arose whether Gentile believers had to keep the Law of Moses, "the apostles and elders came together to consider this matter" (Acts 15:6), and their letter began, "For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us" (Acts 15:28). The council recognized what the gospel already implied. The Orthodox Church sees the same pattern in its later Ecumenical Councils, gatherings of bishops from the whole Church whose decisions the whole Church received, as the site's overview of what the seven Ecumenical Councils decided explains.

How the early Church held fast

The clearest early account of apostolic tradition comes from St. Irenaeus of Lyons, who wrote against the Gnostic teachers while Eleutherius, "in the twelfth place from the apostles," was bishop of Rome.

The Gnostics were teachers who promised salvation through secret knowledge (Greek gnosis) and claimed a secret tradition from the apostles. When refuted from Scripture, Irenaeus reports, they said the Scriptures were ambiguous and that "the truth was not delivered by means of written documents, but vivâ voce," by word of mouth to a select few.¹³ Irenaeus answered with the opposite kind of tradition: public and the same in every church. "It is within the power of all, therefore, in every Church, who may wish to see the truth, to contemplate clearly the tradition of the apostles manifested throughout the whole world." If the apostles had known hidden mysteries, "they would have delivered them especially to those to whom they were also committing the Churches themselves."¹⁴

He used an image close to Paul's deposit. The apostles, "like a rich man [depositing his money] in a bank, lodged in her hands most copiously all things pertaining to the truth." And he asked: "For how should it be if the apostles themselves had not left us writings? Would it not be necessary, [in that case,] to follow the course of the tradition which they handed down to those to whom they did commit the Churches?"¹⁵ After summarizing that faith in the Father, the incarnate Son and the Holy Spirit, he wrote that the Church, "as if occupying but one house, carefully preserves it," for "although the languages of the world are dissimilar, yet the import of the tradition is one and the same."¹⁶ {{strong: Irenaeus, writing in the late second century, appealed to a public apostolic tradition held in common by the churches the apostles founded, and set it against the Gnostics' claim to a secret oral teaching.}} The site's article Closest to the Apostles tells his story and Polycarp's.

The key to Scripture

Irenaeus did not set tradition against Scripture. He accused the Gnostics of consenting "neither to Scripture nor to tradition."¹⁷ Their fault was that they quoted Scripture while rearranging it, like someone who takes "a beautiful image of a king" made "out of precious jewels" and refits the stones "into the form of a dog or of a fox." The remedy was the "rule of truth" (also called the rule of faith), the short summary of the faith confessed at baptism: the one "who retains unchangeable in his heart the rule of the truth which he received by means of baptism, will doubtless recognise the names, the expressions, and the parables taken from the Scriptures, but will by no means acknowledge the blasphemous use which these men make of them."¹⁸ The rule of truth adds no stones; it shows where the stones belong.

Tertullian of Carthage put it sharply: "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."¹⁹ His refusal to debate Scripture with heretics was a polemical tactic, and other Fathers argued from the text directly.

Apostolic Tradition and later customs

Not every old practice is apostolic, as the Fathers and the Orthodox Church both recognize. Fr. Thomas Hopko's catechism for the Orthodox Church in America defines Holy Tradition as "that which is passed on and given over within the Church from the time of Christ's apostles right down to the present day," and then adds that "Some things in the Church are just temporal and temporary things, merely human customs and traditions of no eternal and everlasting value."²⁰

St. Basil the Great gives a famous defense of unwritten tradition. Of the Church's beliefs and practices, "some we possess derived from written teaching; others we have received delivered to us in a mystery by the tradition of the apostles; and both of these in relation to true religion have the same force." His examples are liturgical, such as signing with the cross, turning East to pray and baptizing with three immersions.²¹ Yet Basil refused to let custom settle a doctrinal dispute: "I do not consider it fair that the custom which obtains among them should be regarded as a law and rule of orthodoxy." Instead, "let God-inspired Scripture decide between us."²² For Basil, custom alone proved nothing.

The Seventh Ecumenical Council (Nicaea, 787) made Basil's distinction part of the Church's common confession. Defending the holy icons against the iconoclasts, who rejected them as idols, its definition said: "we keep unchanged all the ecclesiastical traditions handed down to us, whether in writing or verbally." It grounded this in the Spirit's presence, following "the traditions of the Catholic Church (for, as we all know, the Holy Spirit indwells her)," and ended in Paul's words, "holding fast the traditions which we have received."²³ The same council drew the line between honor and worship: icons receive "honourable reverence," not the "true worship of faith (λατρείαν) which pertains alone to the divine nature."

The third century shows how hard the line can be to draw. St. Cyprian of Carthage and Bishop Stephen of Rome disagreed about whether converts baptized by heretics should be baptized again. Stephen appealed to tradition: "Let nothing be innovated, says he, nothing maintained, except what has been handed down." Cyprian replied, "Whence is that tradition?" and argued that "custom without truth is the antiquity of error."²⁴ Both claimed the apostolic inheritance. Telling Tradition from local custom needs the Church's wider judgment, tested against Scripture.

St. Vincent of Lérins, writing about three years after the Council of Ephesus of 431, proposed a test that has been quoted ever since: hold "that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all." He welcomed growth in understanding, "Yet on condition that it be real progress, not alteration of the faith."²⁵ His rule is late and no mechanical formula, but it states what the earlier Fathers practiced.

The Creed is the clearest case of the difference between Tradition and a later development. The Orthodox Church confesses the Creed of Nicaea and Constantinople as the councils gave it, confessing the Holy Spirit "which proceedeth from the Father." The Latin West later added Filioque ("and the Son"). The Catholic Catechism itself notes that the phrase "does not appear in the Creed confessed in 381 at Constantinople" and was "gradually admitted into the Latin liturgy (between the eighth and eleventh centuries)," while holding that the West says it "legitimately and with good reason."²⁶ The Orthodox patriarchs answered in 1848 that it is "contrary to the universal Confession of the Catholic Church as witnessed by the seven Ecumenical Councils."²⁷ The disagreement is still real, but the question both sides ask is the same: what did the whole Church receive?

In short: Holy Tradition is the faith the apostles handed on, kept by the whole Church; a custom can be old and good without being part of that deposit, and an addition does not become Tradition by being repeated.

How the Orthodox read Scripture within Tradition

In short: Orthodox Christians read the Bible as the Church's own book, in the light of the faith the Church has confessed from the beginning.

The Orthodox Church does not treat Scripture and Tradition as two separate sources that each supply part of the faith. Holy Tradition, with a capital T, is not a second set of teachings beside the Bible. In Hopko's words, "Tradition is the very life of the Church itself as it is inspired and guided by the Holy Spirit," and within that life "the Bible holds the first place," followed by the liturgy, the councils, the Fathers, the lives of the saints, the canons and the icons.²⁸

Vincent explains why Scripture needs this setting. He states the objection himself: "Since the canon of Scripture is complete, and sufficient of itself for everything, and more than sufficient, what need is there to join with it the authority of the Church's interpretation?" His answer is that readers take it in different senses, so that "it seems to be capable of as many interpretations as there are interpreters."²⁹ Fr. Georges Florovsky summed up Vincent's view: Tradition was neither "an independent instance, nor was it a complementary source of faith"; it was "Scripture rightly understood."³⁰ St. Athanasius held the same balance. He wrote that "the sacred and inspired Scriptures are sufficient to declare the truth," and in the same sentence commended "other works of our blessed teachers" by which a reader "will gain some knowledge of the interpretation of the Scriptures."³¹

Catholics share much of this; the Second Vatican Council teaches that Scripture and tradition "form one sacred deposit of the word of God, committed to the Church," and that "the task of authentically interpreting the word of God, whether written or handed on, has been entrusted exclusively to the living teaching office of the Church."³² The Orthodox can recognize much in the first statement, but they do not place authentic interpretation in a single teaching office. They locate the guarding of the faith in the conciliar life of the whole Church: bishops meeting in council, and the faithful who receive their decisions as true to the apostolic faith. The site compares the Orthodox and Protestant views in why tradition is different for Protestants and Orthodox Christians.

The Protestant objection: sola scriptura

The Westminster Confession of Faith teaches that the whole counsel of God for salvation is set down in Scripture or deduced from it, "unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of men," and that "The supreme judge by which all controversies of religion are to be determined ... can be no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture."³³ The Lutheran Formula of Concord calls the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures "the sole rule and standard according to which all dogmas together with [all] teachers should be estimated and judged."³⁴

Scripture is "given by inspiration of God" so "that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16-17). The Jews of Berea "searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so" (Acts 17:11). Churches can drift, and the Fathers seem to make Scripture the final test: Athanasius said of the canonical books, "These are fountains of salvation" and "Let no man add to these, neither let him take ought from these."³⁵

Classical Protestantism did not reject all tradition. The Formula of Concord receives the writings of the Fathers "as witnesses" to how the apostolic doctrine was preserved and pledges itself to the Apostles', Nicene and Athanasian creeds.³⁶ The Anglican Articles call the Church "a witness and a keeper of holy Writ" and allow that "Traditions and Ceremonies" may differ from place to place.³⁷ See What Is Sola Scriptura? and Did the Early Church Believe in Sola Scriptura?

An Orthodox response

The Orthodox answer begins with agreement: Scripture is inspired, it holds the first place within Tradition, and Tradition does not add a second gospel to it. The unwritten practices Basil names express the same faith in prayer and worship. The question is how Scripture is rightly read.

First, the New Testament commands Christians to keep traditions received "by word or our epistle" and to commit what was heard to faithful men, and the Fathers, as Chrysostom shows, took that command at its word. Second, the Bereans received Paul's spoken preaching after testing it; apostolic preaching was God's word before it was written. Third, the New Testament canon itself came through tradition. Athanasius described the books as "the books included in the Canon, and handed down, and accredited as Divine." The list of books is not found inside the books.

Fourth, and most important, Vincent's problem has not gone away. Arius quoted Scripture, and so did Athanasius. To say that the Holy Spirit speaks in Scripture is true, but it does not by itself settle which reading is the Spirit's. The early Church settled such questions by asking what the apostolic churches had always believed and by gathering in council, as in Acts 15.

The Orthodox side must also admit something. An appeal to Tradition places a duty on the one who makes it. Showing that a practice is old is not enough; it must belong to the deposit, or else be held as a changeable custom. Cyprian's question, "Whence is that tradition?", is fair to put to anyone, the Orthodox included.

What we can say confidently

• The New Testament uses the vocabulary of tradition for the gospel, the Eucharist and the teaching Paul gave by word and letter, and commands believers to hold it (1 Corinthians 11:2, 23; 15:1-3; 2 Thessalonians 2:15; 3:6).
• The Pastoral Letters call the teaching a deposit to be guarded by the Spirit and committed to faithful teachers.
• John and Jude answer false teaching by calling believers back to what was heard from the beginning and delivered once for all.
• 1 Clement, Polycarp, the Didache and Irenaeus describe a public faith handed down in the churches, not to be added to or taken from.
• Irenaeus set the Church's open tradition against the Gnostics' secret teaching and used the rule of truth as the key to Scripture.
• The Fathers distinguished apostolic teaching from customs and did not treat custom alone as proof of doctrine.
• Chrysostom read 2 Thessalonians 2:15 as teaching that the apostles handed on "many things also unwritten," and the Seventh Ecumenical Council kept the Church's traditions "whether in writing or verbally."

What remains disputed

• Whether Paul wrote the Pastoral Letters and 2 Thessalonians. The argument here does not depend on it, because 1 Corinthians teaches the same pattern.
• How early each city was led by a single bishop distinct from its presbyters.
• Which particular practices belong to apostolic Tradition and which are venerable customs.
• Whether classical sola scriptura fits the patristic pattern; creedal Protestants see more continuity than Orthodox writers usually grant.
• Whether the Western addition of the Filioque to the Creed is a legitimate expression of the faith (the Catholic view) or a change to what the councils received (the Orthodox view).
• Where final interpretive authority lies: Catholics locate it in the Church's teaching office, the Orthodox in the conciliar life and reception of the whole Church.

Conclusion

Guarding the good deposit has never meant standing still. Timothy guarded what he received by teaching it, living it and handing it on. Paul, John, Jude, Clement, Polycarp and Irenaeus all point the same way: back to what was heard from the beginning, and forward to the next generation who must receive it whole.

The Orthodox Church understands itself as that continuing Church. It reads the apostles' letters in its services, celebrates the Eucharist Paul "received from the Lord," and confesses the faith of Nicaea as the way Scripture has always been read and lived. It asks something very old, in the words of St. Polycarp: "let us return to the word which has been handed down to us from the beginning." In an age that will believe almost anything, that remains the safest place to stand.

Notes

1. Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, revised by Henry Stuart Jones (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1940), s.v. παράδοσις, senses 1 and 3 (citing Matthew 15:2 and Mark 7:3 for "tradition"); online at the Perseus Digital Library. ↩
2. Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982). Greek wording is from the SBL Greek New Testament, ed. Michael W. Holmes (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature; Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 2 Thessalonians 2:15 (κρατεῖτε τὰς παραδόσεις), 3:6; 1 Corinthians 11:2; 15:3; 1 Timothy 6:20; 2 Timothy 1:14; Jude 3. ↩
3. John Chrysostom, Homilies on Second Thessalonians 4 (on 2:15), trans. John A. Broadus, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 1st series, vol. 13 (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1889); revised edition at newadvent.org. ↩
4. John of Damascus, Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 4.16, trans. E. W. Watson and L. Pullan, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd series, vol. 9 (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1899); revised edition at newadvent.org. On his dates (born about 676, died between 754 and 787), J. B. O'Connor, "St. John Damascene," The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 8 (New York: Robert Appleton, 1910). ↩
5. The Oxford University Press chapter summaries for Bart D. Ehrman, A Brief Introduction to the New Testament, 5th ed., note doubts about 2 Thessalonians and the Pastoral Epistles (chapter 16) but treat Paul as the author of 1 Corinthians without question (chapter 13). ↩
6. Liddell and Scott, Greek-English Lexicon, s.v. παραθήκη: "anything entrusted to one. deposit." ↩
7. Oxford University Press, student resources for Bart D. Ehrman, A Brief Introduction to the New Testament, 5th ed., "Chapter 16 Summary: In the Wake of the Apostle: The Deutero-Pauline and Pastoral Epistles," Oxford Learning Link. ↩
8. Donald Guthrie, The Pastoral Epistles and the Mind of Paul, Tyndale New Testament Lecture 1955 (London: Tyndale Press, 1956), conclusion. ↩
9. 1 Clement 42 and 44, trans. John Keith, Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 9, ed. Allan Menzies (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1896); revised edition at newadvent.org. ↩
10. Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.3.3, trans. Alexander Roberts and William Rambaut, Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1 (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1885); revised edition at newadvent.org. All quotations from Irenaeus are from this translation. ↩
11. On Polycarp as "instructed by apostles," Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.3.4. Polycarp, Epistle to the Philippians 7, trans. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1 (1885); revised edition at newadvent.org. ↩
12. Didache 4, trans. M. B. Riddle, Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 7 (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886); revised edition at newadvent.org. ↩
13. Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.2.1; on Eleutherius, 3.3.3. ↩
14. Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.3.1. ↩
15. Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.4.1-2. ↩
16. Irenaeus, Against Heresies 1.10.1-2. ↩
17. Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.2.2. ↩
18. Irenaeus, Against Heresies 1.8.1 and 1.9.4. ↩
19. Tertullian, The Prescription against Heretics 19; see also 21 and 37. Trans. Peter Holmes, Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 3 (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1885); revised edition at newadvent.org. ↩
20. Thomas Hopko, The Orthodox Faith, vol. 1, Doctrine and Scripture, "Sources of Christian Doctrine: Tradition" (Orthodox Church in America), oca.org. ↩
21. Basil of Caesarea, On the Holy Spirit 27.66, trans. Blomfield Jackson, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd series, vol. 8 (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1895); revised edition at newadvent.org. ↩
22. Basil of Caesarea, Letter 189.3, to Eustathius the physician, trans. Blomfield Jackson, NPNF2 vol. 8. The NPNF editor notes that this statement "is also found among the works of Gregory of Nyssa; but is more probably to be attributed to Basil." ↩
23. Second Council of Nicaea (787), the Decree (definition of faith), trans. Henry Percival, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd series, vol. 14 (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1900); revised edition at newadvent.org. For the date, H. Leclercq, "The Second Council of Nicaea," The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 11 (1911). ↩
24. Cyprian of Carthage, Epistle 73 (ANF numbering), to Pompey, sections 2 and 9, trans. Robert Ernest Wallis, Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 5 (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886); revised edition at newadvent.org. ↩
25. Vincent of Lérins, Commonitory 2.6, 23.54, and 29.78 (for the date), trans. C. A. Heurtley, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd series, vol. 11 (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1894); revised edition at newadvent.org. ↩
26. Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 247-248, vatican.va (archive/ENG0015). ↩
27. Encyclical of the Eastern Patriarchs, 1848, "A Reply to the Epistle of Pope Pius IX, 'to the Easterns,'" section 5; text at the Fordham University Internet Modern History Sourcebook. ↩
28. Hopko, The Orthodox Faith, vol. 1, "Tradition." ↩
29. Vincent of Lérins, Commonitory 2.4-5. ↩
30. Georges Florovsky, "The Function of Tradition in the Ancient Church," Greek Orthodox Theological Review 9, no. 2 (1964): 181-200; reprinted in Bible, Church, Tradition: An Eastern Orthodox View, Collected Works of Georges Florovsky, vol. 1 (Belmont, MA: Nordland, 1972). Quoted from the text at fatheralexander.org, section "St. Vincent of Lerins and tradition." ↩
31. Athanasius, Against the Heathen 1.3, trans. Archibald Robertson, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd series, vol. 4 (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1892); revised edition at newadvent.org. ↩
32. Second Vatican Council, Dei Verbum, Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation (1965), 9-10, vatican.va. ↩
33. Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 1, sections 6 and 10, Orthodox Presbyterian Church edition, opc.org. ↩
34. Formula of Concord, Epitome, "Comprehensive Summary, Rule and Norm," 1, in Triglot Concordia (St. Louis: Concordia, 1921); text at bookofconcord.org. ↩
35. Athanasius, Festal Letter 39.3 and 39.6 (for 367), trans. R. Payne-Smith, NPNF2 vol. 4; revised edition at newadvent.org. ↩
36. Formula of Concord, Epitome, "Rule and Norm," 2-3. ↩
37. Articles of Religion (Thirty-Nine Articles), Articles VI, XX and XXXIV, Book of Common Prayer (1662); text at churchofengland.org. ↩

Bibliography

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• The Holy Bible, New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.
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• Clement of Rome. First Epistle to the Corinthians. Translated by John Keith. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 9. Edited by Allan Menzies. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1896.
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• The Didache. Translated by M. B. Riddle. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 7. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886.
• Irenaeus of Lyons. Against Heresies. Translated by Alexander Roberts and William Rambaut. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1885.
• Tertullian. The Prescription against Heretics. Translated by Peter Holmes. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 3. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1885.
• Cyprian of Carthage. Epistle 73, to Pompey. Translated by Robert Ernest Wallis. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 5. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886.
• Athanasius of Alexandria. Against the Heathen and Festal Letter 39. Translated by Archibald Robertson and R. Payne-Smith. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd series, vol. 4. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1892.
• Basil of Caesarea. On the Holy Spirit and Letter 189. Translated by Blomfield Jackson. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd series, vol. 8. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1895.
• Vincent of Lérins. Commonitory. Translated by C. A. Heurtley. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd series, vol. 11. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1894.
• John Chrysostom. Homilies on Second Thessalonians. Translated by John A. Broadus. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 1st series, vol. 13. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1889.
• Second Council of Nicaea (787). Decree. Translated by Henry Percival. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd series, vol. 14. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1900.
• John of Damascus. Exposition of the Orthodox Faith. Translated by E. W. Watson and L. Pullan. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd series, vol. 9. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1899.

Orthodox and patristic sources

• Florovsky, Georges. "The Function of Tradition in the Ancient Church." Greek Orthodox Theological Review 9, no. 2 (1964): 181-200. Reprinted in Bible, Church, Tradition: An Eastern Orthodox View, Collected Works of Georges Florovsky, vol. 1. Belmont, MA: Nordland, 1972.
• Hopko, Thomas. The Orthodox Faith, vol. 1, Doctrine and Scripture. Orthodox Church in America, online edition at oca.org.
• Encyclical of the Eastern Patriarchs, 1848. "A Reply to the Epistle of Pope Pius IX, 'to the Easterns.'" Fordham University, Internet Modern History Sourcebook.

Other scholarship (including scholars who disagree)

• Ehrman, Bart D. A Brief Introduction to the New Testament. 5th ed. New York: Oxford University Press. Chapter summaries (chapters 13 and 16), Oxford Learning Link student resources.
• Guthrie, Donald. The Pastoral Epistles and the Mind of Paul. Tyndale New Testament Lecture, 1955. London: Tyndale Press, 1956.
• Leclercq, H. "The Second Council of Nicaea." The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton, 1911.
• Liddell, Henry George, and Robert Scott. A Greek-English Lexicon. Revised by Henry Stuart Jones. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1940. Perseus Digital Library.
• O'Connor, J. B. "St. John Damascene." The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 8. New York: Robert Appleton, 1910.

Sources from the traditions discussed (Protestant and Catholic)

• The Westminster Confession of Faith. Chapter 1. Orthodox Presbyterian Church edition, opc.org.
• Formula of Concord, Epitome. In Triglot Concordia: The Symbolical Books of the Ev. Lutheran Church. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921. Text at bookofconcord.org.
• Church of England. Articles of Religion (Thirty-Nine Articles), Articles VI, XX and XXXIV. Book of Common Prayer, 1662. churchofengland.org.
• Catechism of the Catholic Church. Paragraphs 247-248. vatican.va.
• Second Vatican Council. Dei Verbum: Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation. 1965. vatican.va.