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>Addendum to "Oral Word of God?"
>In the meanwhile of my drafting the previous response to Bellisario, Messrs. Swan and Hays have already forced Bellisario to admit that there is no new revelation. Accordingly, he has attempted to rely on a yet more flimsy branch. That flimsy branch is essentially that there are oral teachings of Jesus that were not placed…
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>Oral Word of God? Response to Bellisario
>Matthew Bellisario (Roman Catholic) has been trying to argue with my friend Steve Hays (Reformed) over in the comment box of Beggars All Reformation (link to comment box). Bellisario’s argument, which seems to be a common “street” argument these days, boils down to this: 1) The Word of God was proclaimed orally at some past…
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Oral Tradition, The Early Church, and Paul Pavao’s Astonishment
I had written (in this previous post): That’s rather the point about the early church fathers – they did not transmit an oral apostolic tradition to us, rather they were our predecessors in trying to search out the meaning of Scripture. Where they do a good job they are to be commended, and where they…
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John of Damascus Points to Practices (not Doctrines) Handed Down Orally by the Apostles
I had asked: “I would be very interested if someone wanted to try to find any comparable statement by John Damascene on oral tradition” (link) One kind reader of the Eastern Orthodox persuasion, using the handle “Orthodox,” responded with a list of three quotations, which I’ve taken the liberty of beefing up by providing greater…
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Irenaeus and the Reliability of "Early" Oral Tradition
People sometimes like to think that if you go back to the earliest fathers you’ll get very good accounts of extra-scriptural tradition. There is a certain amount of intuition to back this up. After all, the earliest fathers were closer in time to the gospel accounts than we are. Intuition is wrong – at least…
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2 Thess 2:15 – Comments Answered
Introduction “Reginald de Piperno” has provided a post that appears to be aimed at objecting to my previous post on 2 Thessalonians 2:15, available here. I appreciate that he read my post and took the time to respond. DiscussionAs best I understand, RdP grants 1(a) and seems to grant 1(b) although he wants to define…
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Tradition Distinguished – Abuse of 2 Thessalonians 2:15 Thwarted
Those who wish to oppose the doctrine of Sola Scriptura typically run to 2 Thessalonians 2:15 as one of the first passages to discuss. As will be demonstrated below, this verse does not support such abuse, and – in fact – demonstrates the eisegetical mindset of those who seek to use it to oppose a…