Wednesday, July 7, 2021

Everett Ferguson on "Tradition" in Irenaeus' Against Heresies

  

The references to the Christian tradition (7) are concentrated in chapters 3-5 of book 3 of Against Heresies. There are only four passages elsewhere. A key passage is 1.10.1. Having summarized the faith of the church, Irenaeus says that this kerygma the church believes, proclaims, teaches, and hands down in harmony: “although the languages of the world are different, the power of the tradition [παραδοσεως] is one of the same.” The leaders of the church, however eloquent, do not teach differently, nor do “those deficient in speech diminish the tradition [παραδοσιν]” (1.10.2). The tradition of the church is here, as elsewhere in Irenaeus, equivalent to the preaching of the church, summarized in the confession of faith. The other three passages refer to the tradition from the apostles (Against Heresies 2.91 about the one God; 3.21.3 about the Greek translation of Is 7:14 [since he proceeds to name Peter, John, Matthew, and Paul, references to whom in Irenaeus are to their writings, it is clear that Irenaeus here includes the New Testament writings under the term tradition . . . ).

 

The emphases in Irenaeus that the tradition derives from the apostles, that it is maintained in the church and that it is transmitted orally (as well as in Scripture) were dictated by the requirements of the polemic against Gnostics, who claimed their teaching came to them from the apostles in a secret oral tradition. These points are repeatedly stated in the opening chapters of book 3. The heart of these chapters has the character of a “digression,” occasioned by the Gnostics’ resort to a secret tradition. Irenaeus’s main task was to refute the heretics from the Scripture, and this he does in the remainder of book 3 through book 5.

 

After his statement about the Gnostics’ retreat from Scripture and appeal to oral tradition (3.2.1), Irenaeus says,

 

When we refer to them that tradition which is from the apostles and is preserved by the successions of presbyters in the churches, they object to tradition, saying they are wiser not only than the presbyters but even the apostles . . . IT comes to this that they consent to neither Scripture nor tradition. (3.2.2)

 

“IT is possible for all who want to see the truth to perceive in every church the tradition from the apostles manifest in all the world.” If the apostles had any hidden mysteries they would have imparted them to the bishops appointed over the churches (3.3.1). The apostolic tradition, therefore, is public, not secret.

 

At this point Irenaeus introduces the church of Rome, and especially its bishop, Clement, and the letter of 1 Clement, as an example of “preserving the tradition of the apostles” (tradition used four times—3.3.2). In this passage tradition is the equivalent of the “preaching of the apostles” and the “preaching of the truth” (tradition used twice—3.3.3). Irenaeus next adduces Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, and then the church at Ephesus as “a true witness of the tradition [παραδοσεως] of the apostles” (3.3.4).

 

These things being so, “we must choose with great diligence the things pertaining to the church and hold fast to the tradition [traditonem] of the truth.” If the apostles had not left us writings, “would it not be necessary to follow the order of the tradition [traditionis] which they delivered to those to whom they committed the churches?” (3.4.1). Barbarian churches without benefit of writing “have salvation written in their hearts by the Spirit and preserve diligently the old tradition [traditionem]” and by means of it do not listen to the doctrines of heretics (3.4.2).

 

Irenaeus concludes his discussion of tradition and returns to the argument from Scripture with the words: “Since the tradition [traditione] which is from the apostles does not exist in the church and is permanent among us, let us return to the proof from the Scriptures of those apostles who wrote the gospel” (3.5.1).

 

Irenaeus thus consistently identifies tradition with what was delivered by the apostles and maintains that it was preserved in the churches. He does so because of the Gnostic controversy over what was authentically apostolic. He does so because of the Gnostic controversy over what was authentically apostolic. The apostles stand for the divine teaching. This tradition is identified by him with the words “rule of faith,” “faith,” “teaching,” and “preaching.” For Irenaeus what is in the Scripture and what is in tradition are the same, the truth about God and Christ; both contain the apostolic preaching. (Everett Ferguson, “Paradosis and Traditio: A Word Study,” in Ronnie J. Rombs and Alexander Y. Hwang, eds., Tradition and the Rule of Faith in the Early Church [Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2010], 3-29, here, pp. 11-13)