Not "Bible-only" but "Bible-mostly"

[Wesrock]

The Gospels, the Acts, the Epistles of Paul, Peter, James, Jude, and John’s apocalypse were all complete by the mid 90’s. Paul’s epistles were shared by the churches he started. It is a misconception to believe that the body of work which became the canon of the new testament was not known to the early church.If anything, your tradition grew alongside Scripture. While a full “Bible” was not created, the Hebrew scriptures were available as well as the writings of the Apostles. And we know that there were learned individuals in each church, otherwise why would the Apostles have written anything at all?

The Church started about a decade and a half before the earliest document we have was written, and as you say it would be a few decades more before our NT scripture was completed, born out of Christian tradition and God-breathed, and widely disseminated to the Churches.

 

[Pulvis]

Event Scripture Date A.D.
Descent of the Holy Spirit Acts 2:1-13 30
Setting Up of the Church Acts 2:40-47 30
First Persecutions (Illustration) Acts 4:1-22; 5:21-42; 7:1-60 35
Philip at Samaria Acts 8:4-13 35
Conversion of Saul (Illustration) Acts 9:1-9 36
First Gentile Converted Acts 10:1-48 40
Founding of Church at Antioch Acts 11:19-30 43
Writing of Matthew’s Gospel Matthew 43
James Killed by Herod Acts 12:1-25 45
Paul’s Call Acts 13:1-3 47
His First Missionary Journey Begun (Map) Acts 13:4-14:28 48
Council at Jerusalem Acts 15:6-35 50
Second Missionary Journey Begun (Map) Acts 15:39-18:22 51
Writing of I Thessalonians I Thessalonians 52
Writing of II Thessalonians II Thessalonians 53
Third Missionary Journey Begun (Map) Acts 18:23-21:17 54
Writing of I Corinthians I Corinthians 57
Writing of Galatians Galatians 57
Writing of II Corinthians II Corinthians 58
Writing of Romans Romans 58
Writing of Luke’s Gospel Luke 59
Paul’s Arrest at Jerusalem Acts 21:26-22:29 58
Paul at Caesarea Acts 23:23-26:32 59
Paul Starts for Rome Acts 27:1-2 60
Paul Reaches Rome Acts 28:11-16a 61
Paul’s Imprisonment at Rome Acts 28:16-31 62
Paul Writes Ephesians Ephesians 62
Paul Writes Philippians Philippians 62
Paul Writes Colossians Colossians 62
Paul Writes Philemon Philemon 62
James Writes his Epistle James 62
I Peter Written I Peter 63
Acts Written Acts 63
Paul is Acquitted - 63
Paul Visits Various Places - 63
Paul Writes Hebrews Hebrews 63
Paul Writes I Timothy I Timothy 63
Paul Writes Titus Titus 63
Writing of Mark’s Gospel Mark 64
II Peter Written II Peter 65
Paul’s Second Imprisonment at Rome - 65
II Timothy Written II Timothy 66
Martyrdom of Paul - 66
Destruction of Jerusalem - 71
Jude’s Epistle Written Jude 75
Writing of John’s Gospel John 85
Writing of John’s Three Epistles I John; II John; III John 90
John’s Visions at Patmos Revelation 1:9 96
Revelation Written Revelation 97
Death of John - 100

blueletterbible.org/study/pnt/pnt02.cfm

A helpful timeline. Sorry the formatting did not work.

 

[Randy_Carson]

Hi, everyone

The Catholic Church derives its teachings from scripture and tradition. It often seems as if tradition becomes a *kind of *scripture in itself, not to be questioned or defied in any way.

Given that we only know about God, and especially Jesus, through scripture in the first instance, is it not reasonable to assert that Scripture takes priority over tradition?

If one thing led to all other things, would not the first be the most prominent and important?

No, it is not reasonable (though it is somewhat understandable that people make this mistake).

Oral Tradition came first, and it formed the basis of what the gospel writers recorded. For example, Mark and Luke were not apostles; they had to hear the stories of Jesus from Peter and Paul (among others), respectively.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church puts it this way:

**THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TRADITION AND SACRED SCRIPTURE

One common source. . .**

80 "Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, then, are bound closely together, and communicate one with the other. For both of them, flowing out from the same divine well-spring, come together in some fashion to form one thing, and move towards the same goal."40 Each of them makes present and fruitful in the Church the mystery of Christ, who promised to remain with his own “always, to the close of the age”.41

. . . two distinct modes of transmission

81 "Sacred Scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit."42

"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 so that, enlightened by the Spirit of truth, they may faithfully preserve, expound and spread it abroad by their preaching."43

82 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."44

scborromeo.org/ccc/p1s1c2a2.htm#II

 

[goout]

First we have Jesus:

1. Jesus is born, walked, talked, healed, etc…Lived a life.
2. Then we have the apostolic Tradition. Those who knew Jesus passed on his person, the stories of his life, to their own communities.
3. Scripture: the story of Jesus’ life committed to writing.

Tradition and Scripture are inseparable. Without authoritative Tradition you have nothing.
Without the Church you have nothing.
If it was good enough for Jesus , it’s good enough for me.