Sproul on Traditions

Webster’s defines “tradition” as “the passing down of elements of a culture from generation to generation, especially by oral communication,” or “a mode of thought or behavior followed by a people continuously from generation to generation,’ or “a set of such customs and usages viewed as a coherent body of precedents influencing the present.”

The English word “tradition” comes from the Latin verb tradere, which means “to hand down.” Actually, the Latin word contains both a prefix and a root. The prefix is trans, which means “over,” and the root is dare, which means “to give.” So the term literally means “to give over.” The same combination of prefix and root is found in the Greek word for tradition, which is parodosis.

I stress this for two reasons. The first is that we clearly see the link between the idea of tradition and the idea of a gift. To pass wisdom from one generation to the next is to transfer a vital and beautiful gift. The second is that the passing on of knowledge and wisdom in the form of tradition is a crucial biblical concept.

Because Jesus uttered sharp rebukes to the scribes and Pharisees for replacing the truth of God with the traditions of men, we sometimes draw the invalid inference that Jesus opposed all tradition. That was not the case. Though He repudiated the supplanting of the Word of God by human tradition, He never attacked or denied the virtue of the divine tradition, the things of God for the people of God for all time. We also speak of the apostolic tradition, which is passed on to all generations of the church. In fact, it may properly be said that the New Testament contains the apostolic tradition and that the Bible as a whole contains the divine tradition.