By F. K. Bartels

“It is clear therefore that, in the supremely wise arrangement of God, sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture, and the Magisterium of the Church are so connected and associated that one of them cannot stand without the others” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 95).

Christ teaches in the Temple

The Catholic Church professes the indispensable necessity and importance of Tradition. In fact, apart from Tradition the pillar of truth that upholds the one, true Christian religion in its fullness cannot stand. The totality of God’s revelation to man is therefore found not simply in Scripture alone, nor is it found in an alien tradition which is isolated or separated from the teaching office of the Catholic Church. The whole of God’s revelation is contained in Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture, and the Magisterium (teaching office) of the Church, as an inseparable unit. Christians ought to realize the importance of Tradition; without it, the true Christian religion in its fullness would cease to exist.

In practical terms, this means that if Christians are reading from Scripture alone, embracing a position of isolation from or rejection of the living Tradition and authoritative Magisterium of the Catholic Church, they are removing themselves from the fullness of God’s Revelation. A Christian removed from Sacred Tradition is a Christian removed from the fullness of truth.

In order to better understand what Sacred Tradition is, it is helpful to be familiar with how God has revealed his truths to us. In the Christian religion, we have two forms of God’s revelation. First, all of God’s revelation is known as divine revelation. Divine revelation can be further divided into two groups: a) divine public revelation, and, b) divine private revelation.

We are here only concerned with divine public revelation. Public revelation is that revelation the apostles received from the lips of Christ and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. It is important to note that divine public revelation ended with the death of the last apostle. Public revelation is what Christians are required without exception to believe.

Divine public revelation comes to us in two forms: written and unwritten. What got recorded in Scripture is written. What did not is unwritten.

It is certain that some of what Christ revealed to the apostles was not written down in the New Testament. Scripture itself tells us so: “Not everything Jesus said is recorded in Scripture” (Jn 21:25). Also, what was revealed to the apostles was first preached; that is, transmitted to the hearers orally. In fact, the NT did not exist as a whole for about sixty-seven years after the crucifixion; therefore the NT itself is based on oral preaching and teaching (Tradition). If it were not for Tradition, Christians would have no New Testament. It was first Tradition and, then, the written word contained in the NT. This is one reason why we say that the Catholic Church “is the mother of the Bible, not its child” (Rev. O’Brien).

We can say that the Catholic Church is the mother of the Bible by virtue of the successive events which played out in the history of the Church: a) the Catholic Church was first established by Christ upon St. Peter, the Rock (see Mt. 16:17-19); b) Christ sent forth his apostles to preach whatsoever he had commanded them (see Mt. 28:18-20); c) the apostles transmitted the faith to the nations through oral teaching; d) the NT was written.

Pope Paul VI wrote, “It is right to say, therefore, that if it was the Word of God that summoned and brought forth the Church, it was the Church, for its part, that was in a certain way, the womb of the holy Scripture, . . .”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains: “Sacred Scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit.”

“And [Holy] Tradition transmits in its entirety the Word of God which has been entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy spirit. It transmits it to the successors of the apostles that, enlightened by the spirit of truth, they may faithfully preserve, expound, and spread it abroad by their preaching.” (CCC, 81, Dei Verbum 9).

Note that Sacred Tradition transmits the Word of God in its entirety. Why is this so? Simply, apart from Tradition we have only partial truth; for some of public divine revelation is unwritten. As a result, Sacred Tradition is a foundational element to the true and whole Christian religion as Christ so revealed it. Scripture alone is partial. Scripture plus Tradition is whole.

As a result the Church, to whom the transmission and interpretation of Revelation is entrusted, “does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the holy Scriptures alone. Both scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence.” (CCC, 82).

As Reverend Thomas McGovern points out in Magisterium, Scripture and Catholic Exegetes, the written word contained in the Bible has limits: “The Bible, like any other written text subject to the limitations of human language, is open to a variety of interpretations, since the written word cannot encapsulate the whole of reality; this is particularly the case when human language is used to articulate the unfathomable mysteries of the triune God. The salvific truths of divine Revelation, culminating in the Person and life of Christ, constitute a reality which surpasses the historical dimension of the redaction of the books of Scripture. Consequently, it is to be expected that some aspects of the totality of Revelation would not be expressed clearly, with all their implications, in the biblical text. Thus it is necessary to have recourse to the living and total reality of Revelation, of which the [Catholic] Church is in possession by divine design, in order to clarify and explicate the deep riches of the written word.”

The Bible itself tells us to adhere to Tradition

Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus (2 Tim 1:13).

But we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which he received from us (2 Thess 3:6)

I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold fast to the traditions, just as I handed them on to you (1 Cor 11:2).

Therefore, brothers, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours. (2 Thess 2:15).

Sacred Tradition is necessary

“Christ the Lord, in whom the entire Revelation of the most high God is summed up, commanded the apostles to preach the Gospel, which had been promised beforehand by the prophets, and which he fulfilled in his own person and promulgated with his own lips. In preaching the Gospel, they were to communicate the gifts of God to all men. This Gospel was to be the source of all saving truth and moral discipline” (CCC 75).

Note that Christ commanded the apostles to “preach” the Gospel, not write it down. It was first oral preaching of divinely revealed truths (Tradition) and, second, the New Testament. Further, in order for the Gospel to remain a source of “all saving truth and moral discipline,” it is imperative that all the truth revealed to the apostles be passed on to future generations, not simply what was written in the NT. This is accomplished through apostolic succession in the Catholic Church, which allows the authority and teaching office entrusted to the apostles to be passed to their successors, the bishops, that future generations of the faithful would receive the fullness of God’s Revelation. Therefore the fullness of God’s Revelation is contained in Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture and the Magisterium of the Catholic Church.

If we are to access and assent to the fullness of truth, Tradition is necessary:

Through Tradition, “the Church, in her doctrine, life, and worship perpetuates and transmits to every generation all that she herself is, all that she believes. The sayings of the holy Fathers are a witness to the life-giving presence of this Tradition, showing how its riches are poured out in the practice and life of the Church, in her belief and her prayer” (CCC 78).

The riches which are a product of Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture are self-evident in the Catholic Church; that is, through the guardianship of the Church the original deposit of faith in all its fullness is held and transmitted to the masses as the true Christian religion. Sacred Tradition is inseparable from the fullness of truth.

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