Do you know of any place in Scripture where tradition is used to discern truth from error?
Yep…the Epistle of St. Jude. As follows:
[8] Yet in like manner these men in their dreamings defile the flesh, reject authority, and revile the glorious ones.
[9] But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, disputed about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a reviling judgment upon him, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.”
[10] But these men revile whatever they do not understand, and by those things that they know by instinct as irrational animals do, they are destroyed.
and
[12] These are blemishes on your love feasts, as they boldly carouse together, looking after themselves; waterless clouds, carried along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted;
[13] wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars for whom the nether gloom of darkness has been reserved for ever.
[14] It was of these also that Enoch in the seventh generation from Adam prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with his holy myriads,
[15] to execute judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness which they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”
[16] These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own passions, loud-mouthed boasters, flattering people to gain advantage.
[17] But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ;
[18] they said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.”
[19] It is these who set up divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.
[20] But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit;
[21] keep yourselves in the love of God; wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
Jude is pretty clear that he is using two non canonical Jewish Traditional sources to help the church discern truth from error.
The first text is from the Assumption of Moses, and the second is from the Book of Enoch.
