Scripture and Tradition today

[Trustful]

The Catholic Church does not regard revelation as adequately presented in Scripture alone. There has been always a relationship of Scripture and Tradition throughout the history of the Church. How do you understand this relationship to function in the present time?

Thank you for your inside and God bless

Trustful

 

[The_Way]

It should function the same way it did during the time of the holy apostles through the oral (passed down through the writings of the fathers of the Church) and written form deposited in the care of the Catholic Church.

God bless,

 

[jpjd]

The Catholic Church does not regard revelation as adequately presented in Scripture alone.

This is a mis-statement of the Church’s view. It’s not a matter of “adequate presentation”.

Divine revelation has been given to us through Jesus Christ, and was handed on first through Sacred Tradition. Recall that the writings of the Bible were not written until well after Jesus’ death. How were His teachings passed on? By living transmission, i.e., Sacred Tradition. Sacred Tradition is the teaching of Jesus’ teachings, the oral passing on of the understanding of what Christ taught, that comes from Christ and was passed on to the apostles (and continues to be passed on to their successors the bishops).

Some of the Divine Revelation passed on through Sacred Tradition was written down and is what is now called the Bible (Sacred Scripture).

So, what we have today is Divine Revelation that is presented to us through Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture. Furthermore, the Magisterium, which is the Pope and the bishops in their teaching authority, safeguards and interprets Divine Revelation.

There has been always a relationship of Scripture and Tradition throughout the history of the Church. How do you understand this relationship to function in the present time?

Here is the Catechism of the Catholic Church on this subject:

---

In the apostolic preaching. . .
76 In keeping with the Lord’s command, the Gospel was handed on in two ways:

• *orally *“by the apostles who handed on, by the spoken word of their preaching, by the example they gave, by the institutions they established, what they themselves had received - whether from the lips of Christ, from his way of life and his works, or whether they had learned it at the prompting of the Holy Spirit”;33
• in writing “by those apostles and other men associated with the apostles who, under the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit, committed the message of salvation to writing”.34
  . . . continued in apostolic succession
  77 "In order that the full and living Gospel might always be preserved in the Church the apostles left bishops as their successors. They gave them their own position of teaching authority."35 Indeed, "the apostolic preaching, which is expressed in a special way in the inspired books, was to be preserved in a continuous line of succession until the end of time."36 78 This living transmission, accomplished in the Holy Spirit, is called Tradition, since it is distinct from Sacred Scripture, though closely connected to it. Through Tradition, "the Church, in her doctrine, life and worship, perpetuates and transmits to every generation all that she herself is, all that she believes."37 "The sayings of the holy Fathers are a witness to the life-giving presence of this Tradition, showing how its riches are poured out in the practice and life of the Church, in her belief and her prayer."38