Traditions or the Word of God?

 For God said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and ‘The one who speaks evil of father or mother must certainly die.’ But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or his mother, “Whatever benefit you would have received from me is a gift to God,” need not honor his father,’ and you make void the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

Matthew 15:4–7 (LEB)

There are two schools of thought in Christianity regarding tradition. One says that the traditions were handed down from the apostles to the church fathers, pope and priests and that we are to obey them. The other position is “sola scriptura”, which means we are to follow scripture only.

From http://theorthodoxfaith.com/article/tradition-in-the-scriptures/: “Often Jesus associates tradition with the “tradition of men.” There is a distinction between traditions of men and traditions given by the Holy Spirit. Those traditions that Paul commands us to obey come from the Holy Spirit and not of men”.

So, the way the Orthodox Christians distance themselves from the Pharisees is to say their traditions come from the Holy Spirit and not from men. The Roman Catholics also have a similar stance on their traditions being handed to the fathers by the “the Spirit of truth”, and that they hold a higher place than the written word of God.

However, the Pharisees’ traditions came from the oral Torah which was also supposed to be given by God to Moses orally. The Protestants used the term “sola scriptura” to break away from the traditions of the Catholic church, but the protestants did not do a very good job of “sola scriptura” and seemed to copy a lot of the Catholic and Orthodox traditions.

2 Thessalonians 2:15 (LEB): ¹⁵ So then, brothers, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions which you were taught, whether by spoken word or by letter from us.

The Orthodox website I quoted earlier maintains that Paul told the Thessalonians to follow the traditions handed down to them. It continues by claiming the New International Version of the Bible changed the word “tradition” to “teachings”.

2 Thessalonians 2:15 (NIV): ¹⁵ So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.

The following is from the New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology regarding the Greek word for “tradition”:

NT 1. In the NT paradidōmi occurs in all 120 times; of these 84 are in the Gospels, 13 in Acts, only 19 altogether in the Pauline Epistles (6 in Rom., 7 in 1 Cor., 3 in Eph., 1 each in 2 Cor., Gal., 1 Tim.), 3 in 1 and 2 Pet., 1 in Jude. It does not occur at all in Heb., Rev., and the Epistles of Jn.
In the NT paradosis never occurs in the sense of handing over or betrayal, but only in the sense of the transmission of doctrine (→ Teach, art. παράδοσις).

Now we know that there is an argument about the meaning of the Greek word paradidōmi, and whether or not the traditions of the church fathers, “given by the Holy Spirit”, have more weight than what word of God tells us.

This idea that the “Holy Spirit” gave instructions that supersede what we read in scripture is suspicious, especially if one believes the scriptures are inspired by the Holy Spirit. Does the Holy Spirit continually change His mind? Who is the Holy Spirit? Is it not the Creator of the universe? I could start a tradition and tell everyone it came from the “Holy Spirit”, force people under my control to do it for hundreds of years through an institution and now we have just described hundreds of years of Christianity.

Jesus gives us the perfect example with the Pharisees’ oral tradition, supposedly from God, where one could give money to the priests in lieu of taking care of their parents. Here are some verses about how we should honor our mother and father.

Exodus 20:12 (LEB): ¹² “Honor your father and your mother, so that your days can be long on the land that Yahweh your God is giving you.

Exodus 21:15–17 (LEB): ¹⁵ And whoever strikes his father or his mother will surely be put to death. ¹⁶ “ ‘And whoever kidnaps someone and sells him, or he is found in his possession, he will surely be put to death. ¹⁷ “ ‘And one who curses his father or his mother will surely be put to death.

Leviticus 19:3 (LEB): ³ Each of you must revere your mother and your father, and you must keep my Sabbaths; I am Yahweh your God.

Jesus never seemed to quote anything from the oral Torah, which eventually was written down in what they call the Mishna. He was all about the “Word of God”

Matthew 4:4 (LEB): ⁴ But he answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man will not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes out of the mouth of God.’ ”

Even this comes from the Word of God. Jesus never makes new doctrine and then tells us it is “from the Holy Spirit”.

Deuteronomy 8:1–4 (LEB): “All of the commandments that I am commanding you today you must diligently observe, so that you may live and multiply, and you may go and take possession of the land that Yahweh swore to your ancestors. ² And you shall remember all of the way that Yahweh your God led you during these forty years in the desert in order to humble you and to test you to know what is in your heart, whether you would diligently keep his commandments or not. ³ And he humbled you and let you go hungry, and then he fed you with that which you did not know nor did your ancestors know, in order to make you know that not by bread alone but by all that goes out of the mouth of Yahweh humankind shall live. ⁴ Your clothing did not wear out _⌊on you_⌋, and your feet did not swell during these forty years.

We are free to believe whatever we want. If the Pharisees believed the “Holy Spirit” gave them oral tradition that said one could give money to the priests instead of honoring their parents, then that was their prerogative. Jesus came to correct their error and this ended in the crucifixion stake for him. What would Jesus think about the Greco-Roman tradition of Sunday being God’s new special day, replacing the Sabbath? This is clearly a tradition handed down through the church that makes the Sabbath commandment void. Was it given to the church fathers by the “Holy Spirit”, or is it a Christian version of the Pharisees’ tradition of giving money to the priests instead of taking care of one’s mother and father?

Here are some verses about the importance of the Sabbath.

Exodus 20:8–11 (LEB): ⁸ “Remember the day of the Sabbath, to consecrate it. ⁹ Six days you will work, and you will do all your work. ¹⁰ But the seventh day is a Sabbath for Yahweh your God; you will not do any work—you or your son or your daughter, your male slave or your female slave, or your animal, or your alien who is in your gates—¹¹ because in six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and on the seventh day he rested. Therefore Yahweh blessed the seventh day and consecrated it.

Isaiah 56:2–5 (LEB): ² Happy is the man who does this, and the son of humankind who keeps hold of it, who keeps the Sabbath so as not to profane it, and who keeps his hand from doing any evil.” ³ And do not let the foreigner who joins himself to Yahweh say, “Surely Yahweh will separate me from his people.” And do not let the eunuch say, “Look! I am a dry tree!” ⁴ For thus says Yahweh, “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, and choose that in which I delight, and who keep hold of my covenant. ⁵ And I will give them a monument and a name in my house and within my walls, better than sons and daughters; I will give him an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.

Did God change His mind about the Sabbath and tell the Holy Spirit to tell everyone it is to be changed to a different day with different traditions? That does not sound like the voice of the God in the Old Testament. Do we have a new God now? Jesus was very harsh with the Pharisees who viewed their traditions higher than the commandments of the God of the Old Testament. Would he not be just as indigent to those who completely changed the Sabbath?

Mark 7:6–8 (LEB): ⁶ So he said to them, “Isaiah prophesied correctly about you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far, far away from me. ⁷ And they worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ⁸ Abandoning the commandment of God, you hold fast to the tradition of men.”

Jesus quotes Isaiah, who was quoting God, saying that it is vain worship when we forsake the commandments of God. How is this not the case with the Sabbath? It was Roman law in 343 CE. “The Canons of the Synod Held in the City of Laodicea, in Phrygia Pacatiana, in which Many Blessed Fathers from Divers Provinces of Asia Were Gathered Together”.

Canon XXIX.
Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honouring the Lord’s Day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ.

This is actual Roman law making the commandment of God void, telling us to work on the Sabbath.

Are there other commandments of God made void by the traditions of men? By misusing Paul’s writings, millions of Christians have convinced themselves that most of God’s commandment’s are null and void. This is a precarious place to be once one discovers the true nature of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He selected a particular family from the earth, Genesis 26:5 (LEB): “because Abraham listened to my voice and kept my charge: my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.” He told this family how to live and then extended the blessing to the whole world through Jesus the Messiah. Jesus simply pointed us back to the words of his Father. Now we have a big mess on our hands because people do anything they want and say it is from the “Holy Spirit”.

Other examples of replacing commandments of God with traditions of men is that of God’s feast days. The Father tells us His special days are Passover, First Fruits, Unleavened Bread, Shavuot and Sukkoth. Tradition has us replace Passover with Easter, a day mixed with traditions of the “queen of heaven”, with the eggs, baked cakes and rabbits; and then make up a day mixed with traditions from Roman and Nordic gods calling it the birth day of the son of God at the winter solstice. These traditions were not given by the “Holy Spirit” because the theme of all scripture is about the importance of keeping the commandments of God and not mixing worship with gods of others.

The Father gave us his secrets through Israel, and Jesus the Messiah gave us the ability to understand through the real Holy Spirit. The way to spot a tradition of man is to see where it leads. There have been many deceiving spirits, prophets and dreamers who have led Christianity astray. Just as the Father put the serpent in the garden, He has sent all these different traditions to see if we love Him enough to do what He said to do. Even the writings of Paul sit there in scripture giving the reader a choice to follow God or man. If one wants to believe God’s commandments are null and void they can use Paul to justify it and feel good about it, even though Paul said the law is spiritual, holy and good, and he also believed.

Acts 24:14–16 (LEB): ¹⁴ But I do confess this to you, that according to the Way (which they call a sect), so I worship the God of our fathers, believing all things that are in accordance with the law and that are written in the prophets, ¹⁵ having a hope in God which these men also themselves await: that there is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous. ¹⁶ For this reason also I myself always do my best to have a clear conscience toward God and people.

To learn the nature and voice of God, one must study what He said. Jesus emphasized the importance of love, mercy and justice and that is the purpose of God’s law.

Deuteronomy 12:32–13:4 (LEB): ³² All of the things that I am commanding you, you must diligently observe; you shall not add to it, and you shall not take away from it.”

13 “If a prophet stands up in your midst or a dreamer of dreams and he gives to you a sign or wonder, ² and the sign or the wonder comes about that he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods (those whom you have not known), and let us serve them,’ ³ you must not listen to the words of that prophet or to that dreamer, for Yahweh your God is testing you to know whether you love Yahweh your God with all of your heart and with all of your inner self. ⁴ You shall go after Yahweh your God, and him you shall revere, and his commandment you shall keep, and to his voice you shall listen, and him you shall serve, and to him you shall hold fast.

It’s a test that unfortunately, many are failing.

The featured image is a meme made by 119 ministries.