The Apostolic Faith: Why Christians Must Hold to the Faith Once for All Delivered (Jude 3)

Near the end of the New Testament is a one-chapter letter many Christians rarely read. Its author, Jude, says he had meant to write about "our common salvation," but found he had to send an urgent appeal instead: "contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3, NKJV).¹ He spoke of a definite faith, already given, and given once to the whole people of God.

So what is "the apostolic faith"? How was it handed on after the apostles died? And why should Christians today treat the faith of the early Church, rather than a newer reading or a later revelation, as the measure of Christianity? Latter-day Saints believe the Church fell into a general apostasy after the apostles. Many Protestants believe the medieval Church buried the gospel under human traditions until the Reformation. Some historians doubt there was ever one apostolic faith.

The owner of this site puts the stakes plainly: without the apostolic faith, we fall for anything. The early Church believed the same. The witnesses who lived closest to the apostles, spoke their language and often died for their confession deserve to be heard first.

In brief

Jude's word "delivered" belongs to the New Testament vocabulary of handing on (paradosis, literally "handing over," the word translated "tradition"), the same word family Paul uses for the gospel he "delivered" and the traditions he told the Thessalonians to hold. The apostolic faith is the deposit the apostles handed over: the gospel, summarized in the early "rule of faith"; the Scriptures, read within the Church that received them; its worship and sacraments; and a ministry to guard and pass it on. Clement, Ignatius and Polycarp show it kept within living memory of the apostles, and St. Irenaeus and Tertullian made it a public test: a teaching that cannot be traced to what the apostolic churches openly taught is not apostolic. Some details are disputed, but the core claim holds: the early Church received and kept the faith; it did not invent or rediscover it.

Thesis: The apostolic faith is the gospel and way of life that Christ gave to the apostles and that they handed on, once for all, to the Church; because it was publicly delivered and publicly kept, it remains the test of every later claim to speak for Christ.

What Jude meant by "once for all delivered"

Two Greek words carry the verse. The first is hapax, "once for all." Hebrews 9:28 uses it when it says "Christ was offered once": the offering was complete and needs no repeating. Jude applies the same word to the faith. It was given in full and does not need a second delivery. The Orthodox patriarchs said the same in 1848: the faith "has long ago been sealed in completeness, not to admit of diminution or increase, or any change whatever."²

The second is paradotheisē, "delivered" or "handed over," from the verb paradidōmi, which also gives the noun paradosis, "tradition." Paul uses this verb for the core of the gospel: "For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures" (1 Corinthians 15:3). And Jude says the faith was delivered "to the saints," the whole holy people, not to a few gifted interpreters or an inner circle.

Jude does not list the contents of "the faith," or say how it would be preserved. But the shape of the claim is clear: the faith is received from outside ourselves, and the believer's task is to contend for it, not to improve on it.

Handing on: the New Testament language of tradition

Paul praises the Corinthians because they "keep the traditions just as I delivered them to you" (1 Corinthians 11:2). He tells the Thessalonians to "stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle" (2 Thessalonians 2:15), and to withdraw from anyone who walks "not according to the tradition which he received from us" (2 Thessalonians 3:6). For Paul the gospel has fixed content, and what he taught "by word" stands beside what he wrote (though that alone does not prove any later custom apostolic).

Paul expected the tradition to outlive him. He tells Timothy, "Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me," and "That good thing which was committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us" (2 Timothy 1:13-14). The Greek is tēn kalēn parathēkēn, "the good deposit," something entrusted to a guardian. Then comes what the owner of this site calls four generations in one sentence: "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).

John answers false teachers the same way: "Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning" (1 John 2:24). When people broke away, he did not conclude that the Church had failed: "They went out from us, but they were not of us" (1 John 2:19). Behind these commands stand Christ's promises to be with his disciples "always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20) and to send the Spirit who "will guide you into all truth" (John 16:13). The Church is "the pillar and ground of the truth" (1 Timothy 3:15).³ Our article The Church That Could Not Disappear treats these promises more fully.

What the apostolic faith contains

Acts describes the first community this way: "And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers" (Acts 2:42). Teaching, communion, the Eucharist and prayer belong together, and the second-century writers fill in each part.

The gospel and the rule of faith

At the center is the gospel. By the late second century it had a recognized summary, "the rule of faith." St. Irenaeus, writing around 180, set it out at length:

"The Church, though dispersed throughout the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and their disciples this faith: [She believes] in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them; and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who became incarnate for our salvation; and in the Holy Spirit..."⁴

He added that "the Churches which have been planted in Germany do not believe or hand down anything different, nor do those in Spain, nor those in Gaul, nor those in the East, nor those in Egypt."⁴ Tertullian of Carthage gave a parallel summary and said this rule "was taught by Christ."⁵ The summaries differ in wording and agree in substance. The same faith is confessed in the Nicene Creed, sung at every Orthodox Divine Liturgy: "In one Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church."⁶ See also our guide to St. Irenaeus.

The Scriptures, read within the Church

The deposit includes the Scriptures: the Old Testament the apostles received, chiefly in the Greek Septuagint, and the apostolic writings that became the New Testament. The early writers insisted these belong to the Church and are read by its rule. Irenaeus asked what would happen if the apostles had left no 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?" He pointed to "many nations of those barbarians who believe in Christ" who kept the faith "without paper or ink."⁷

Irenaeus quoted Scripture constantly; his point was that the faith was in the Church before the New Testament was collected and is the key for reading it. Tertullian told the heretics that the Scriptures were not theirs to use: "I hold sure title-deeds from the original owners themselves... I am the heir of the apostles."⁸

Worship and the sacraments

St. Justin Martyr, in the mid-second century, told the emperor Antoninus Pius that no one may receive the Eucharist "but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins," and added, "For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these."⁹ Irenaeus tied belief and worship together: "our opinion is in accordance with the Eucharist, and the Eucharist in turn establishes our opinion."¹⁰ St. Basil the Great later wrote that some of the Church's beliefs and practices come "from written teaching," and others "delivered to us in a mystery by the tradition of the apostles," such as the sign of the cross.¹¹ The Church's prayer carries the faith.

The ministry that guards the deposit

The apostles appointed local leaders. Paul and Barnabas "appointed elders in every church" (Acts 14:23). Titus was to "appoint elders in every city as I commanded you" (Titus 1:5), and Timothy was told, "Do not lay hands on anyone hastily" (1 Timothy 5:22).

The letter of the Roman church to Corinth, 1 Clement, usually dated to the end of the first century, explains the pattern: "The apostles have preached the gospel to us from the Lord Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ [has done so] from God," and the apostles appointed "the first fruits [of their labours]... to be bishops and deacons of those who should afterwards believe."¹² They then "gave instructions, that when these should fall asleep, other approved men should succeed them in their ministry."¹³ {{strong: Before the end of the first century, the church of Rome was already teaching that the apostles had appointed local ministers and provided for successors to follow them.}}

This handing on of the ministry from generation to generation is called apostolic succession. In Orthodox teaching it has two sides that belong together: an unbroken line of ordination by the laying on of hands, and the same apostolic faith taught by those ordained. Neither is enough without the other.

The witnesses closest to the apostles

These Christians spoke the apostles' Greek, lived in their cities, and some knew the apostles or their disciples. Our article Closest to the Apostles tells their stories more fully.

St. Ignatius of Antioch, who according to Eusebius "became food for wild beasts on account of his testimony to Christ,"¹⁴ wrote to the churches on his way to death in Rome: "Let no man do anything connected with the Church without the bishop. Let that be deemed a proper Eucharist, which is [administered] either by the bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it," and "wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church."¹⁵ For Ignatius the Church is the Eucharistic assembly gathered around its bishop. He assumed this order; he did not argue for it as new.

St. Polycarp of Smyrna is the clearest link. Irenaeus, who heard him as a boy, wrote that Polycarp "was not only instructed by apostles, and conversed with many who had seen Christ, but was also, by apostles in Asia, appointed bishop of the Church in Smyrna,"¹⁶ and he remembered Polycarp's accounts "of his intercourse with John."¹⁷ Polycarp's own letter urges the Philippians to "return to the word which has been handed down to us from the beginning."¹⁸ Pressed to revile Christ, he answered, as his church reported: "Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He never did me any injury: how then can I blaspheme my King and my Saviour?"¹⁹

Two cautions. Martyrdom proves sincerity, not infallibility; the martyrs matter as witnesses because they died for a faith they said they had received, not one they had devised. And Polycarp's link with John rests mainly on one early witness, Irenaeus. The year of Polycarp's death, which Eusebius places under Marcus Aurelius, and the date of the account of his martyrdom are also debated.²⁰ {{moderate: Polycarp was taught by the Apostle John, a claim that rests mainly on the testimony of Irenaeus, who heard Polycarp as a boy.}}

Why the apostolic faith is the test of every later claim

Second-century Gnostic teachers claimed secret knowledge from Jesus. The Church answered with public facts anyone could check.

Irenaeus: the public succession and the rule of truth

In short: anyone could check what the apostolic churches taught, and who had taught it.

Irenaeus wrote that "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," and that "we are in a position to reckon up those who were by the apostles instituted bishops in the Churches." Had the apostles known hidden mysteries, "they would have delivered them especially to those to whom they were also committing the Churches themselves."

He listed Rome's bishops from Linus to Eleutherius, his contemporary, and concluded: "In this order, and by this succession, the ecclesiastical tradition from the apostles, and the preaching of the truth, have come down to us."²¹

The argument is public, and not mechanical, for Irenaeus joined succession to doctrine: true knowledge "is [that which consists in] the doctrine of the apostles, and the ancient constitution of the Church throughout all the world, and the distinctive manifestation of the body of Christ according to the successions of the bishops."²² Bishops matter because they hand down the apostles' teaching.

Hegesippus made the same check in person. On a journey to Rome, Eusebius reports, he met many bishops and "received the same doctrine from all."²³ {{strong: By the later second century, Christian writers in Gaul, Rome and the East were appealing to public lists of bishops and to a shared rule of faith as evidence that the churches held the apostles' teaching.}} See Did the Early Church Believe in Apostolic Succession? for more.

The Church applied the same rule to its own bishops. Paul of Samosata, bishop of the apostolic see of Antioch, taught that Christ was by nature "a common man." Under the emperor Aurelian a synod of bishops wrote that "he has departed from the rule of faith," and excommunicated him. Eusebius sums it up: Paul "had fallen from the episcopate, as well as from the orthodox faith."²⁴ His ordination did not protect a bishop who abandoned the apostles' teaching. That is why the Orthodox Church still prays at every Divine Liturgy for "all Orthodox bishops, who rightly proclaim the word of your truth."²⁵

Tertullian's prescription, read with care

Tertullian, writing around 200, used the language of Roman law: a "prescription" ruled a case out of court before its merits were argued. The apostles, he said, founded churches "in every city, from which all the other churches, one after another, derived the tradition of the faith."²⁶ Doctrine that agrees with "the apostolic churches—those moulds and original sources of the faith must be reckoned for truth."²⁷ He challenged the heretics: "Let them produce the original records of their churches; let them unfold the roll of their bishops," as "the church of Smyrna, which records that Polycarp was placed therein by John."²⁸

Tertullian needs care. His point was who has the right to interpret Scripture, not a refusal to discuss it. And according to St. Jerome he later "lapsed to the doctrine of Montanus," a movement claiming new prophecy, so the Church did not receive everything he wrote.²⁸ But he too joined succession to doctrine: churches founded later still count as apostolic because, in his own chapter heading, "their faith is that which the apostles taught and handed down."²⁸

Councils: the pattern of Jerusalem continued

When the apostles and elders met in Jerusalem over the admission of Gentiles, they wrote, "it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us" (Acts 15:28). The Church kept that pattern: its councils saw their task as guarding what had been received, not adding to it. The Council of Constantinople in 381 began its canons: "The Faith of the Three Hundred and Eighteen Fathers assembled at Nice in Bithynia shall not be set aside, but shall remain firm." The Seventh Ecumenical Council (Nicaea, 787) said, "we keep unchanged all the ecclesiastical traditions handed down to us, whether in writing or verbally."²⁹

An Ecumenical Council is one whose teaching the whole Church has accepted as its own. Hopko notes that "not all such councils were automatically approved and accepted by the Church," and that only seven "have received the universal approval of the entire Church in all times and places."³⁰ This acceptance by the whole Church is called reception.

Vincent of Lérins: everywhere, always, by all

St. Vincent of Lérins wrote his Commonitory around 434. His best-known sentence summarized the older principle: "we hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all."³¹ He welcomed growth in understanding, but only "in the same doctrine, in the same sense, and in the same meaning."³² His formula, though later, describes what Irenaeus and Tertullian had done.

This is what Orthodox writers mean by the consensus of the Fathers (consensus patrum). It does not mean every Father was right on every point. Hopko says plainly that "the writings of the Church Fathers are not infallible," yet "taken as a whole" they "have great authority."³³ Where the Fathers agree, the Church hears its own mind.

Tradition as the Church's living memory

The Orthodox Church, which understands itself as the continuation of this apostolic Church, calls the apostolic faith as it lives on in the Church Holy Tradition, written with a capital T to set it apart from passing customs. Fr. Thomas Hopko's catechism for the Orthodox Church in America explains that tradition "is that which is 'passed on' and 'given over' from one to another," and that "Tradition is the very life of the Church itself as it is inspired and guided by the Holy Spirit." Within it "the Bible holds the first place," followed by the liturgy, councils, Fathers, saints, canons and icons. He adds a warning: "Not everything in the Church belongs to its Holy Tradition."³⁴

In short: Scripture is not one source and Tradition a second. Scripture is the heart of the one Tradition, and the Spirit who inspired it keeps the Church in its meaning.

Fr. Georges Florovsky wrote: "The appeal to Tradition was actually an appeal to the mind of the Church." Recourse to Scripture and Tradition, he insisted, "did not imply, however, that there were two sources of Christian doctrine." He translates St. Athanasius: "Let us look at that very tradition, teaching, and faith of the Catholic Church from the very beginning, which the Lord gave, the Apostles preached, and the Fathers preserved. Upon this the Church is founded."³⁵

The Orthodox patriarchs, answering Pope Pius IX in 1848, added that guarding the faith is not left to bishops alone: "neither Patriarchs nor Councils could then have introduced novelties amongst us, because the protector of religion is the very body of the Church, even the people themselves."² The Orthodox call the Church indefectible: as a whole it cannot fall away from the truth, though a bishop, a local council or a local church can, as Paul of Samosata did.

Objections and responses

"Scripture alone is the rule; tradition is where errors creep in"

The Westminster Confession states that the whole counsel of God is "either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of men."³⁶ The concern is serious, since church history contains real corruptions.

The Orthodox agree that nothing may be added to the apostolic faith; the question is where it is found. The early Church read Scripture as the written heart of the one Tradition, by the rule of faith received with it, because its opponents also quoted the Bible at length. A Protestant can fairly reply that the Fathers appealed to Scripture as the final proof. That is true; they would add that they read it within the Church. Our article Guard the Good Deposit takes up this question.

"The Church fell into apostasy and had to be restored"

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe that "after the deaths of the Savior and His Apostles, men corrupted the principles of the gospel and made unauthorized changes in Church organization and priesthood ordinances," so that "the Lord withdrew the authority of the priesthood from the earth" until the Restoration through Joseph Smith.³⁷ They sincerely read passages such as 2 Thessalonians 2:3 as foretelling this.

The New Testament does predict false teachers, but it presents defection as people leaving the Church, not the Church vanishing, and it promises glory "in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever" (Ephesians 3:21). History tells against it too: the generation that would have lost the faith is that of Clement, Ignatius and Polycarp, who were teaching the gospel, ordaining successors and dying as martyrs. See our article on the problems with the claim of a restoration.

"There was no single apostolic faith, only competing Christianities"

In 1934 Walter Bauer argued that the later "orthodox" account of Christian origins reflects the side that prevailed; in his editor Georg Strecker's summary, "in many regions heresy is the original manifestation of Christianity."³⁸ Bauer rightly showed that early Christianity was varied, but his thesis has drawn sustained criticism. In his 1954 Bampton Lectures H. E. W. Turner argued for "an interaction of fixed and flexible elements": a shared core of worship and belief from the start, with real variety in its expression.³⁹ The earliest texts fit that picture: Clement, Ignatius and Polycarp, writing from Rome, Antioch and Smyrna, share a recognizable faith and ministry.

"The single bishop in each city came later"

This objection has force. In the New Testament and 1 Clement, "bishop" (overseer) and "presbyter" (elder) are used largely interchangeably. St. Jerome wrote that "when subsequently one presbyter was chosen to preside over the rest, this was done to remedy schism."⁴⁰ The Anglican scholar J. B. Lightfoot concluded that "the episcopate" (the office of bishop) "was formed not out of the apostolic order by localisation but out of the presbyteral by elevation."⁴¹

Yet Lightfoot also concluded that "the institution of an episcopate must be placed as far back as the closing years of the first century, and that it cannot, without violence to historical testimony, be dissevered from the name of St John."⁴¹ Ignatius takes the single bishop for granted in the churches of Asia Minor. And the apostolic claim does not require every church to have had the later threefold form on the day the apostles left. It rests on an apostolic commission to teach, ordain and govern, handed on by the laying on of hands, together with the apostolic faith, within the communion of the churches. {{debated: Every apostolic church was led by a single bishop from the apostles' own day.}}

"Irenaeus points to Rome, so the apostolic faith means communion with the Pope"

Catholics point to Irenaeus's sentence: "it is a matter of necessity that every Church should agree with this Church, on account of its preeminent authority."²¹ The Second Vatican Council teaches that "sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture form one sacred deposit of the word of God, committed to the Church," and that the Church's teaching office "is not above the word of God, but serves it."⁴² The Orthodox reply that Irenaeus chose Rome as one example because listing every church would be "very tedious," that he went straight on to Smyrna and Ephesus, and that his sentence, which survives only in Latin, has long been debated. The Council of Nicaea (325) set the ancient churches of Alexandria, Rome and Antioch side by side and gave Jerusalem "the next place of honour."⁴³ The Orthodox Church honors Rome's ancient place, but holds that no single see guarantees the faith. The 1848 patriarchs said the Fathers "teach us not to judge Orthodoxy from the holy Throne, but the Throne itself and him that is on the Throne by the sacred Scriptures, by Synodical decrees ... and by the Faith which has been preached."² The guarantee is Christ's promise to the whole Church.

Why it matters today

Paul says Christ gave the Church its ministers "that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine" (Ephesians 4:14). A Christian who measures teaching only by his own reading of a translated Bible has no defense against a clever new interpretation, for the Gnostics and Arius quoted Scripture too. Faced with a new revelation or a novel reading, we can ask Irenaeus's question: is this what the apostles handed to the churches, and what those churches have always confessed? See also our short video Jude 1:3: The Faith Once Delivered and our Church Fathers guide.

What we can say confidently

• Jude 3 calls the faith "once for all delivered," using the New Testament's ordinary word for handing on tradition.
• Paul treats the gospel and his traditions as a fixed deposit to be held fast and passed on through faithful teachers (1 Corinthians 15:1-3; 2 Thessalonians 2:15; 2 Timothy 1:13-14; 2:2).
• 1 Clement, before the end of the first century, taught that the apostles appointed local ministers and provided for their succession.
• Ignatius, early in the second century, assumes churches led by a bishop with presbyters and deacons.
• Irenaeus (about 180) and Tertullian (about 200) appealed to public lists of bishops and a shared rule of faith across widely separated churches.
• For the early Church the apostolic faith included the gospel, the Scriptures read by the rule of faith, sacramental worship, and a ministry to guard it; a bishop who abandoned that faith, like Paul of Samosata, was deposed.

What remains disputed

• How quickly a single presiding bishop emerged in every church.
• How much weight Irenaeus's boyhood memory of Polycarp and John can bear.
• The year of Polycarp's death and the date of the account of his martyrdom.
• How varied the earliest communities were, a question Bauer reopened.
• Which practices named by later Fathers, such as Basil, go back to the apostles.
• The meaning of Irenaeus's sentence about Rome, which Catholics and Orthodox read differently.
• Whether Scripture alone or Scripture within Tradition is the rule of faith.

Conclusion

The faith Jude asked his readers to contend for was not his idea, and it was not left for later generations to reinvent. It was the gospel of Christ crucified and risen, handed over to the saints and kept in the Church's confession, Scriptures, prayer and ministry. The men nearest the apostles sealed it with their lives; Polycarp died for a Lord he had served for eighty-six years.

The Orthodox Church believes this faith is still confessed, unchanged in substance, whenever it sings the Creed and gathers around the Eucharist with its bishop, as Ignatius taught. That confidence rests not on the virtue of Christians, who have often failed, but on Christ's promise and on the Holy Spirit who guides the Church into all truth. The invitation is simple: as Polycarp told the Philippians, return to the word handed down from the beginning, hold it fast, and hand it on.

Notes

1. All Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), checked at Bible Gateway. Greek words (hapax, paradotheisē, paredōka, parathēkē, paradoseis) are from the SBL Greek New Testament at Bible Gateway (Jude 3; Hebrews 9:28; 1 Corinthians 15:3; 2 Timothy 1:14; 2 Thessalonians 2:15). ↩
2. Encyclical of the Eastern Patriarchs (1848), "A Reply to the Epistle of Pope Pius IX, 'to the Easterns,'" sections 20 ("sealed in completeness"), 17 (the people as protector) and 11 (judging the Throne), Internet Modern History Sourcebook, Fordham University. ↩
3. Matthew 28:20; John 16:13; 1 Timothy 3:15 (NKJV). ↩
4. Irenaeus, Against Heresies 1.10.1-2, trans. Alexander Roberts and William Rambaut, Ante-Nicene Fathers vol. 1 (1885), newadvent.org/fathers/0103110.htm. ↩
5. Tertullian, The Prescription against Heretics 13, trans. Peter Holmes, Ante-Nicene Fathers vol. 3 (1885), newadvent.org/fathers/0311.htm. ↩
6. The Symbol of Faith (Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed), as printed by the Orthodox Church in America, oca.org. ↩
7. Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.4.1-2, trans. Roberts and Rambaut, ANF 1. ↩
8. Tertullian, Prescription 37, trans. Holmes, ANF 3. ↩
9. Justin Martyr, First Apology 66, trans. Marcus Dods and George Reith, ANF 1, newadvent.org/fathers/0126.htm. ↩
10. Irenaeus, Against Heresies 4.18.5, trans. Roberts and Rambaut, ANF 1. ↩
11. Basil of Caesarea, On the Holy Spirit 27.66, trans. Blomfield Jackson, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd series, vol. 8 (1895), newadvent.org/fathers/3203.htm. ↩
12. 1 Clement 42, trans. John Keith, Ante-Nicene Fathers vol. 9 (1896), newadvent.org/fathers/1010.htm. ↩
13. 1 Clement 44, trans. Keith, ANF 9. ↩
14. Eusebius, Church History 3.33-36, trans. Arthur Cushman McGiffert, NPNF2 vol. 1 (1890), newadvent.org/fathers/250103.htm. ↩
15. Ignatius of Antioch, To the Smyrnaeans 8, trans. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, ANF 1, newadvent.org/fathers/0109.htm. Compare To the Magnesians 6, where the bishop presides "in the place of God" and the presbyters "in the place of the assembly of the apostles" (newadvent.org/fathers/0105.htm). ↩
16. Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.3.4, trans. Roberts and Rambaut, ANF 1, newadvent.org/fathers/0103303.htm. ↩
17. Irenaeus, Letter to Florinus, preserved in Eusebius, Church History 5.20.4-7, trans. McGiffert, NPNF2 1, newadvent.org/fathers/250105.htm. ↩
18. Polycarp, To the Philippians 7, trans. Roberts and Donaldson, ANF 1, newadvent.org/fathers/0136.htm. ↩
19. The Martyrdom of Polycarp 9, trans. Roberts and Donaldson, ANF 1, newadvent.org/fathers/0102.htm. ↩
20. Eusebius, Church History 4.15 (chapter heading: "Under Verus, Polycarp with Others suffered Martyrdom at Smyrna"), NPNF2 1, newadvent.org/fathers/250104.htm. On the date of the text, see Candida R. Moss, "On the Dating of Polycarp: Rethinking the Place of the Martyrdom of Polycarp in the History of Christianity," Early Christianity 1, no. 4 (2010): 539-574. ↩
21. Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.3.1-3, trans. Roberts and Rambaut, ANF 1, newadvent.org/fathers/0103303.htm. ↩
22. Irenaeus, Against Heresies 4.33.8, trans. Roberts and Rambaut, ANF 1. ↩
23. Hegesippus, as reported in Eusebius, Church History 4.22.1 (his own words follow in 4.22.2-3), trans. McGiffert, NPNF2 1, newadvent.org/fathers/250104.htm. ↩
24. Eusebius, Church History 7.27.2, 7.28.4-7.29.1, 7.30.7 and 7.30.17-18 (the synod's letter and Eusebius's summary), trans. McGiffert, NPNF2 1, newadvent.org/fathers/250107.htm. ↩
25. The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, intercessions after the consecration, in the translation of the Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), as printed in Alexander Lingas, The Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom (Portland: Cappella Romana, 2008), booklet, openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/21533. ↩
26. Tertullian, Prescription 20, trans. Holmes, ANF 3. ↩
27. Tertullian, Prescription 21, trans. Holmes, ANF 3. ↩
28. Tertullian, Prescription 32 (text and chapter heading), trans. Holmes, ANF 3. On his later Montanism and his dates (he "flourished chiefly in the reign of the emperor Severus and Antoninus Caracalla"), see Jerome, Lives of Illustrious Men 53, trans. Ernest Cushing Richardson, NPNF2 vol. 3 (1892), newadvent.org/fathers/2708.htm. ↩
29. First Council of Constantinople (381), canon 1; Second Council of Nicaea (787), Definition, trans. Henry Percival, NPNF2 vol. 14 (1900), newadvent.org/fathers/3808.htm and 3819.htm. Acts 15:28 is NKJV. ↩
30. Thomas Hopko, The Orthodox Faith, vol. 1, "Sources of Christian Doctrine: The Councils," oca.org. ↩
31. Vincent of Lérins, Commonitory 2.6 and 29.78, trans. C. A. Heurtley, NPNF2 vol. 11 (1894), newadvent.org/fathers/3506.htm. ↩
32. Vincent of Lérins, Commonitory 23.54, trans. Heurtley, NPNF2 11. ↩
33. Thomas Hopko, The Orthodox Faith, vol. 1, "Sources of Christian Doctrine: The Fathers," oca.org. ↩
34. Thomas Hopko, The Orthodox Faith, vol. 1, Doctrine and Scripture, "Sources of Christian Doctrine: Tradition," Orthodox Church in America, oca.org. ↩
35. 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 (Belmont, MA: Nordland, 1972); text at fatheralexander.org. The Athanasius passage is Letter to Serapion 1.28, in Florovsky's translation. ↩
36. Westminster Confession of Faith 1.6, Orthodox Presbyterian Church edition, opc.org. ↩
37. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Gospel Topics, "Apostasy," churchofjesuschrist.org. ↩
38. Georg Strecker, Foreword to the second German edition, in Walter Bauer, Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity, ed. Robert A. Kraft and Gerhard Kroedel (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1971); electronic edition by Robert A. Kraft, ccat.sas.upenn.edu. ↩
39. H. E. W. Turner, The Pattern of Christian Truth (London: Mowbray, 1954), as quoted and summarized in Kraft's appendix "The Reception of the Book," in Bauer, Orthodoxy and Heresy, electronic edition. ↩
40. Jerome, Letter 146 (to Evangelus), trans. W. H. Fremantle, G. Lewis and W. G. Martley, NPNF2 vol. 6 (1893), newadvent.org/fathers/3001146.htm. ↩
41. J. B. Lightfoot, The Christian Ministry (London: Macmillan, 1901; the essay first appeared in his commentary on Philippians). ↩
42. Second Vatican Council, Dei Verbum 10 (1965), vatican.va. ↩
43. First Council of Nicaea (325), canons 6 and 7, trans. Percival, NPNF2 14, newadvent.org/fathers/3801.htm. ↩

Bibliography

Primary sources

• The Holy Bible, New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982. Greek text: SBL Greek New Testament, at biblegateway.com.
• Clement of Rome. Letter to the Corinthians (1 Clement). Translated by John Keith. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 9. Edited by Allan Menzies. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1896. Revised edition at newadvent.org.
• Ignatius of Antioch. To the Magnesians, To the Smyrnaeans. Translated by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1885.
• Polycarp of Smyrna. To the Philippians; and The Martyrdom of Polycarp. Translated by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1. 1885.
• Justin Martyr. First Apology. Translated by Marcus Dods and George Reith. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1. 1885.
• Irenaeus of Lyons. Against Heresies. Translated by Alexander Roberts and William Rambaut. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1. 1885.
• Tertullian. The Prescription against Heretics. Translated by Peter Holmes. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 3. 1885.
• Eusebius of Caesarea. Church History (including Hegesippus and Irenaeus's Letter to Florinus). Translated by Arthur Cushman McGiffert. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd series, vol. 1. 1890.
• Basil of Caesarea. On the Holy Spirit. Translated by Blomfield Jackson. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd series, vol. 8. 1895.
• Jerome. Lives of Illustrious Men. Translated by Ernest Cushing Richardson. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd series, vol. 3. 1892.
• Jerome. Letter 146. Translated by W. H. Fremantle, G. Lewis and W. G. Martley. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd series, vol. 6. 1893.
• Vincent of Lérins. Commonitory. Translated by C. A. Heurtley. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd series, vol. 11. 1894.
• Councils of Nicaea (325), Constantinople (381) and Nicaea II (787). Translated by Henry Percival. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd series, vol. 14. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1900.
• The Divine Liturgy of Our Father Among the Saints John Chrysostom. Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995. Text as printed in Alexander Lingas, The Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, Cappella Romana, 2008.
• The Symbol of Faith (Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed). Orthodox Church in America, oca.org.

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, vol. 1. Belmont, MA: Nordland, 1972.
• Hopko, Thomas. The Orthodox Faith, vol. 1, Doctrine and Scripture (sections "Tradition," "The Councils," "The Fathers"). 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." Internet Modern History Sourcebook, Fordham University.

Other scholarship (including scholars who disagree)

• Bauer, Walter. Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity. 2nd German ed. by Georg Strecker. English translation edited by Robert A. Kraft and Gerhard Kroedel. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1971. Electronic edition by Robert A. Kraft, 1993.
• Turner, H. E. W. The Pattern of Christian Truth: A Study in the Relations between Orthodoxy and Heresy in the Early Church. London: Mowbray, 1954. (Cited from Kraft's summary in the Bauer electronic edition.)
• Lightfoot, J. B. The Christian Ministry. London: Macmillan, 1901.
• Moss, Candida R. "On the Dating of Polycarp: Rethinking the Place of the Martyrdom of Polycarp in the History of Christianity." Early Christianity 1, no. 4 (2010): 539-574.

Sources from the traditions discussed (Protestant, Catholic, Latter-day Saint)

• The Westminster Confession of Faith. Orthodox Presbyterian Church edition, opc.org.
• Second Vatican Council. Dei Verbum: Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation. 1965. vatican.va.
• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Gospel Topics: "Apostasy." churchofjesuschrist.org.