By: Fr. Anthony Alevizopoulos
When we speak about Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition, we do not mean two
separate or opposing things, but a harmonious whole: God’s complete
revelation about the grace of man’s salvation.
St. Basil the Great
summarizes this teaching of Orthodoxy in the following words: “From the
dogmas and the truth which the Church safeguards, some we have received from
written teaching and some, which have secretly reached us, we received
through the tradition of the apostles. Both have the same importance for the
faith. And no one with even a meager knowledge of ecclesiastical teachings
will raise objection... Since if we asserted that we should abandon as many
“practices” that are unwritten, because supposedly they’re not of great
importance, we would damage – without realizing it – the essence of the
Gospel, or rather we would transform the Gospel into “a name empty of
meaning.”
St. Basil the Great does
not fail to mention specific examples of the Church’s “practices” in his
time, which no one would dispute, yet are not found in any written
tradition:
“For example (so as to
recall the first and most common of all), who taught in writing that whoever
hopes in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ shows this faith by making the
sign of the cross? To turn towards the East during prayer, which written
text teaches this? The words of the Church during the blessing of the bread
and the holy cup at the Holy Eucharist, which of the saints left them behind
in writing? We certainly do not confine ourselves to the things the Apostles
or the Gospel acknowledge, but before the Eucharist and after it, we also
say other things, since we were taught by unwritten teaching that they have
great power in the celebration of the mystery.”
However, the father of
the Church himself also mentions the celebration of other holy mysteries.
“We bless,” he says, “the water of baptism as well and the oil of chrism and
the one who is being baptized. From which written texts did we get these
things? Do we not know about them from the tacit and secret tradition?... Do
all these things not precede from the teaching which our fathers kept secret
and which was not publicized, which our fathers preserved in silence,
without much scrutiny and inspection, since they had learned correctly that
in silence we must protect the decency of the mysteries?”
This preservation “in
silence” was in the mindset of the Apostles and referred to the correct
attitude of the faithful towards the mysteries of God.
“The apostles and the
fathers who set up institutions in the Church from the beginning, sought to
safeguard the secrecy. Moreover, when something is easily perceived by
someone, it ceases to be a mystery; this is the meaning of unwritten
tradition,” St. Basil concludes. However, afterwards he brings it up again,
he uses the confession during holy baptism as an example:
“From which written
tradition do we have the confession of faith in the Father, the Son and the
Holy Spirit? For, if based on the tradition of baptism we make our
confession [of faith] as an essential element of the baptism (i.e. Triadic),
since from consistency to piety we ought to believe as we are baptized, let
us again from consistency to piety, offer doxology in a consistent manner
with the faith (i.e. Triadological). If, however, they reject this manner of
doxology as unwritten, then let them present us with written proof
concerning the confession of faith and the other things we have mentioned.”
Therefore, there is not
a significant difference between the written and unwritten revelation of
God, between the written and unwritten tradition of the Church, which goes
back to the first centuries of the Church and comprises an integral part of
the life of the Church throughout the centuries.
We emphasize that the
Gospel message is preserved and conveyed by the Church. The Apostles
entrusted the teaching of Christ to the pastors of the Church, who were in
unbroken apostolic succession and guaranteed the pure and certain
propagation of this teaching to the following generations. This “tradition”
or “heritage,” which was received “once and for all” from the saints and
transmitted without “gaps” or “interruption” from one generation to the
next, does not made up of “mandates of men” but is the product of the
constant presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church, whose head is Christ.
Christ did not come to
write books, but to guide the scattered children of God to unity under the
same Head. This was the primary message of the Old Testament, which is
correctly understood with the person of the coming messiah at the center.
For Christians, the new, central event is not the gathering of some books,
which were called the New Testament, but the event itself of salvation in
Christ. The Apostles received the command to “increase” the body of Christ,
building on the one foundation – Christ. Their work was not to write books,
and even the texts they wrote were gathered together after their deaths by
the Church itself and constituted the New Testament. They were situational
texts, presupposing verbal preaching and not rendering it unnecessary, nor
replacing it.
One cannot understand
the “Canon” of the New Testament (the catalogue of books belonging to the
New Testament) without [understanding] the course of Church history. Without
the Church we cannot cogently answer the question, “which books belong to
Holy Scripture and for what reason,” nor can we make progress in the
interpretation of Holy Scripture without running the risk of creating
ceaseless separate groups, schisms and heresies which put man’s salvation in
danger.
The erroneous beliefs of
all heretical groups, which put forward a different “Canon” of Scripture or
which deviate from the truth of Holy Scripture are due to the following one
reason: they rejected the Church and cut themselves from communion with it.
Thus, they lost the stable measure of judgment and point of reference which
would ensure them communion “with all the saints” and a share in the
salvific faith which was delivered “once and for all” to the saints (Jude
3). When anyone rejects the Church, they themselves become a point of
reference and measure of judgment; they inevitably fall victim to subjective
fallacy, they are removed to “another Gospel” (Galatians 1 6:8).
If man preserved the
purity of his heart, God would continue to communicate in a more immediate
way with him; the written word would not be needed. This means that the
books of the Holy Scriptures were given as a type of medicine which the sick
person uses. However, this does not mean that the written word is left to
itself and made absolute, seeing as it is a part of the “heritage,” not all
of it. The Church’s holy tradition is all of it and it is not understand
outside the Church.
It’s a matter of the
sacred message of the Church, of the common experience “of all the saints,”
not mandates made by men. It is apostolic succession, which is directly
connected to the apostolic teaching and is expressed as the common
conscience of the Church, with the “mouth” of the Ecumenical Councils.
An excerpt from the book
Our Orthodoxy.
Journal: Dialogos
Volume 31
Translation by: Holy Monastery of Pantokrator
