Why is Tradition reliable?

[Abu]

The reality is that Tradition is the teachings of Jesus, His Apostles and His Church. (CCC 81,82).
These are the teachings that have been entrusted to the Church and handed down from the Apostles and their successor bishops in union with the Pope.

The other “tradition” is legitimate customs, theological, disciplinary, liturgical or devotional, over time. (CCC #83). Erroneous traditions are condemned.

 

[Abu]

simspt #18
The community of believers (early Church) was preaching and teaching for decades before a single NT writing was written. So why not take your question just one step back. Some of the NT texts were probable written as long as 60 years after the ministry of Jesus.

False.

Very revealing is The Hebrew Christ, Claude Tresmontant, Franciscan Herald Press, 1989, on the origins and dating of the Gospels. As Bishop John Charles Thomas writes in the foreword: “There is nothing in the least unscientific in postulating that there was only a brief period of oral transmission before some of the Gospel materials began to be set down.”

The majority of “scholars” fail again. See the works of Jean Carmignac, John A. T. Robinson, and Claude Tresmontant, who mainly date the NT books prior to A.D. 70, with some of them written in the 30s.

Tresmontant shows in 318 pages, that “all four of the Gospels, as well as some of the other New Testament books, were evidently translations into Greek from earlier texts originally composed in Hebrew.” (p 319). Others agreeing include Jean Carmignac, Greek linguist John Wenham, the earliest being Anglican Bishop John Robinson.

For Matthew, there is evidence from the early church to support an Aramaic original: Papias, Irenaeus, Origen, Eusebius, Chrysostom, Epiphanius, Augustine.

 

[Sam43232]

Sam,

I’m a catechumen (I’ll be baptized this Easter) and this is one of the more difficult questions I’ve found to tackle.

I’m sure that there are others on here that can probably give a more detailed answer, and I hope that they do respond, however, I think that you did a great job for what it’s worth! This is about how I would/could answer it in my current knowledge.

I’m curious though, you seem to have a pretty good grasp of things, what are you struggling with in order to make that choice to come home?

Congrats! I’m a little bit jealous right now.

I am just not in the right place right now as I’m overseas and the specific work I’m doing, along with my host country’s dislike of Christianity in general, mean that becoming Catholic is not possible right now.

I’m using this time to make absolutely sure God’s calling me to the Catholic Church and to double check that I’m not making an absolutely huge theological mistake. Barring divine intervention or some new discovery in my studies, when I return home, I will also start the ball rolling on my personal reconciliation with the Catholic church.