Parallel Theories of Tradition by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 9, 1907

Parallel Theories of Tradition

By W. A. S.

THE Jewish teachers had set the traditions of men above the Word of God. To justify their departure from the Scriptures and give a semblance of divine authority to their practises, they invented the theory of oral tradition.

The Jewish Theory

They held that when Moses was in the mount to receive the instruction which he wrote in the “book of the law,” he was given also much instruction which was not written. This, according to the theory, he transmitted orally to Joshua, and Joshua in turn to the elders, and they passed these sayings on to the men of the Great Synagogue, the doctors of the law.

Thus the rabbis sought to give divine sanction to the traditions which had accumulated through generations. By the time of Christ, tradition had been exalted above the Word of God. In fact, only the doctors of philosophy, who were guardians of tradition, were supposed to be able to understand truth. When the common people heard Christ gladly, as he opened the Word of God to their understanding, the Pharisees said, “This people who knoweth not the law are cursed.”

Christ swept aside all this. “Full well,” he told the Pharisees, “ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.” “In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.”

The Modern Theory

A parallel to this story is supplied by the modern theory of church tradition. In order to explain doctrines and practises not founded on the Word of God, the Catholic Church has developed the theory of church tradition. The apostles are supposed to have received and passed on through their successors teachings not recorded in the Scriptures. The Scriptures are to be understood in the light of apostolic tradition. Hence people must come to those who know the traditions of the church in order to learn what the Scriptures mean. Thus tradition, as of old, makes void the Word of God.

And not Catholics alone, but Protestants as well, cling to some doctrines contrary to Scripture, and founded only in tradition. They hold to the Sunday, which has not a word of divine sanction, and break the Sabbath, making void the commandment of God by the tradition of men. It is often said that this is one of the things that Christ taught, which are not recorded. One grave Protestant bishop once actually printed in a tract the declaration that Christ instructed the apostles to change the day, and for some wise reason told them not to say anything about it in their writings. It is the same theory of oral tradition by which the Jewish doctors in Christ’s time made void the Scriptures of truth. And again the time has come when the message of Christ is being preached: “Every plant which my Heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.”

W. A. S.