ORAL TRADITION IN THE THIRD ANGEL'S MESSAGE.
By J. A. L. Derby
Satan seems never to forget a trick that works well. His exaltation of oral tradition to nullify the truth of God did not end with the Pharisees, nor with the papacy. We may profitably study for a few minutes the successive transmigrations of the soul of this ancient snare. Commentaries on the sacred books of the Jews, the “law and prophets,” did not exist until after the return from the Babylonian captivity. Previously to that time, as the lamentable record shows, little regard was paid to the word of God: the Israelites “mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy.” The result was captivity by their enemies. Then, as often happens in individual experiences, affliction and misfortune directed their minds to the Lord and his word. In the land of exile, a descendant of Aaron the high priest, hopeless of Israel’s rise by worldly prowess, set his heart upon the devout study of the ancient Scriptures. “Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.” Ezra 7:10. How this was carried out at Jerusalem in the time of the restoration, is recorded in Neh. 8:1-13. But when the Great Synagogue thus came together, the devil came also. This sort of thing was not at all satisfactory to his diabolical diplomacy. It would never do for the unadulterated truth to become a matter of common knowledge with the people. He therefore puts into practice one of his most strategic principles—if you can not completely hinder, try at least to direct. If you can not obstruct, hurry along into fanaticism or heresy. If the people are determined to know what the Lord’s will is, join hands with them. “That is right, that is right. You know what happened before, because you were not careful to learn the Lord’s will. Be very, very careful now. Look closely. You can not be too zealous nor too scrupulous. Gather every scrap of divine revelation you can find. Do not forget that the Lord talked a great deal with Moses and other holy men, and told them many things they never wrote down. Be very diligent to hunt up these oral traditions and preserve them,” etc., etc. If there is anything history shows that the great adversary can successfully manipulate, it is an oral tradition. It was by the development of this principle that the Pharisees made void the commandment of God through the traditions of the elders. Matt. 15:1-9. In brief, it came about as follows: Very early in the history of the Great Synagogue originated the maxim, “Make a hedge about the law.” In accordance with this, “To build up elaborate explanations, thorny obstructions, subtle evasions, enormous developments, was the labor of the later Jewish scribes, till the Pentateuch was buried beneath the Mishna, and the Mishna beneath the Gemara.” Of course the Mishna and Gemara, constituting the two portions of the Talmud, show the reference in this quotation, from Stanley’s History of the Jewish Church, to be to the period subsequent to the time of Christ, when the Talmud grew up; but if we put the words “Halacha” and “Haggada” in place of “Mishna” and “Gemara,” we have an exact statement of the development of Biblical exegesis after the time of Ezra. In Dr. Terry’s History of Biblical Interpretation this fact is thus stated: “The rigid measures adopted by Ezra, Nehemiah, and their associates would seem to have prepared the way for pharisaism. The scribes of the period succeeding that of Nehemiah not only copied the sacred books, and explained their general import, but took measures to make a hedge about the law. They set a value on the very letters of the law, and counted their number. . . . At the same time, they gathered up traditions and constructed an oral law, which, in time, came to have, with them, an authority equal to that of the sacred books. Thus originated the Jewish Halacha and Haggada, the legal and homiletic exegesis.” These various expositions constitute the Midrashim, as the Mishna and Gemara constitute the Talmud. The result of this, as stated by Jesus, was that the commandments of God were made of none effect. Thus ended the first chapter in the history of oral tradition. It is not necessary to enlarge on the fact that in the Christian age the same course has been pursued by the wily enemy of righteousness. With such books as “Two Republics” in our hands, we have no need to reiterate the history. The Roman Catholic Church stands as the great champion of tradition. The Sunday institution stands as a monument of the work of tradition in setting aside the truth of God. Thus closes the second act, and the third moves on apace. One would think that Seventh-day Adventists would know enough about the results of oral tradition to forever preclude the likelihood of their quoting anything concerning the word of God without being able to lay their hands on the divine authority for the utterance. But lo, the work of the subtle old serpent is more than visible in twisting his sophistry about the words of the Spirit of Prophecy. How often are heard such statements as the following: “But Sister White said so and so.” My friend, where is it written? “I have known Sister White for years; and she said thus and thus in regard to eating meat [or something else].” My friend, doubtless your intention is to be strictly truthful, but I must prefer the written statement. “Sister White said she was shown she would live till the Lord comes.” Pardon me, where is the record? “So-and-so told me that So-and-so told him that at a certain meeting Sister White said so and so.” Excuse me; where did you say that it is written? Statements like the preceding are not unfamiliar. And their tendency is manifested in the conclusions of a young man, who for several years has been connected with our institutions at Battle Creek, which conclusions were based on such a statement as the preceding—what he had heard that somebody else said that he had heard that somebody else was said to have heard Sister White say in a sermon. One of the conclusions was that we do not know anything about when the Lord will come; it may be in one week, or it may be in a thousand. Even a “U. T.” is better in hand before quoted. Very many who read these lines are perfectly familiar with these oral traditions floating among us, and realize that this warning is not unneeded. The ultimate effect of these oral traditions can only be to weaken, if not positively to nullify, the effect of the great truths of the Third Angel’s Message. Let the motto be: “What is written? How readest thou?”