For more on this topic see "Know the Faith: A Handbook for Orthodox Christians and Inquirers" - https://store.ancientfaith.com/know-the-faith/
Introductory Note:
The modern controversy regarding Scripture and Tradition did not exist until the corruptions of the Roman Church prompted a reaction by those we now call the Protestant reformers. One such corruption was the teaching that the Scripture could only be interpreted (at least correctly) by the “Magisterium” (i.e. the Pope with his bishops) because they alone knew the Tradition of the Church. This encouraged the idea that the oral Tradition was something secretive and inaccessible to the faithful. This lack of transparency was often perceived as an opportunity to manipulate the faithful by appealing to this unknown “tradition” and fueled feelings of clericalism, with everything coming from “the top down.”
In practice the lay people were discouraged from reading or interpreting Scripture themselves. This attitude of excluding priests, monks, and lay people from direct knowledge of the Scriptures, along with a growing suspicion towards Church Tradition and the invention of the printing press, caused Martin Luther to campaign for all Christians to have access to the Bible. Along with the battle cry, “faith alone,” was added “solo Scriptura” (the Scriptures alone). While Martin Luther did not intend to do away with all of Church Tradition (but rather the various corrupt traditions of the Catholicism of his time), it was only a matter of time before others began dropping much of legitimate Church Tradition.
Within this context, both among Catholics and Protestants, Scripture and Tradition began to be seen as separate and distinct sources of the Christian Faith.
Clarifications:
In general the Church Fathers and the Orthodox Church do not separate Scripture and Tradition but rather understand the Scriptures to be an honored part of Church Tradition. Scripture and Tradition are never in competition or at odds, however, Church Tradition (i.e. the teaching of the apostles) preceded the Scripture. The Scripture is a reflection of apostolic Tradition but not exhaustively. Outside an organic understanding and experience of the Tradition of the Church the Scriptures can be twisted, misconstrued, and misinterpreted.The Orthodox Church has never discouraged the faithful from the reading of Holy Scripture. While it is true that the office of the episcopacy (and through him the priest) has an official teaching gift within the Body, the Orthodox recognize a charismatic gift of teaching that may be given to any one of the faithful, and in general to the Saints.[1] In Orthodoxy theology is not merely the result of intelligence or schooling or office, it is the fruit of true prayer and a pure heart. In the early Church the episcopacy was not seen as a matter of “institution,” but as a charismatic gift to which a man must be faithful. In other words he must be faithful to the Tradition of the Church through his own personal experience of the Church’s life of grace which bears witness to the Tradition. It was also assumed that candidates for the episcopacy were purified of sin and illumined by the Holy Spirit. For this reason, after the persecutions ended, it was determined that bishops would be taken from the ranks of holy monks who had shown themselves as men of great holiness.The Scriptures and the Church make a distinction between “Holy Tradition” or “apostolic Tradition” and “the traditions of men.” Jesus condemned the tradition of men as did the apostles. Yet the apostles (particularly St. Paul) wrote of Church Tradition. The Church Tradition is not man-made but has its source in the experience of the apostles and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Authentic Tradition is guided by and guarded by the Holy Spirit in the Church. Due to the real or imagined corruptions that occurred in Rome under the guise of “tradition,” Protestants are very weary of anything labeled as tradition and Evangelicals vehemently accept only Scripture as a source for doctrine and practice.Evangelicals generally hold to the belief that Scripture is “all sufficient.” This means there is nothing explicitly omitted from the Bible that is necessary for our salvation. Therefore, if it is not in the Bible, it is not of the Christian Church. In reality however, Evangelicals themselves adhere to various non-Scriptural traditions that have no real basis in the Bible. Many would argue further that there are no human errors in the Scriptures. There is a tendency to diminish anything human in the Scriptures, i.e. that the writers had different perspectives and personalities that influence their writings, etc.
Biblical Evidence
While there are no passages in Scripture that teach Solo Scriptura, there are many passages that reveal that tradition is authoritative for Christians. Furthermore that Tradition does not only include various doctrines to be believed but encompasses the whole way of life that brings salvation to believers. This way of life, which was taught and modeled by the apostles, is not completely and explicitly delineated in Holy Scripture. The Christian forms of worship, for instance, are not explicit in the New Testament. Other verses show that one can be led astray by misinterpreting the Scriptures. The failure of the Solo Scriptura doctrine is clearly seen by its fruits, e.g. the continual splintering of denominations claiming to correctly interpret the Scriptures without reference to the Church Tradition.
Tradition (written or unwritten) is authoritative:
2 Thess. 2:15
“Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle.”
2 Thess. 3:6
“But we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which he received from us.”
1 Thess. 4:1
“…just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God.”
1 Cor. 11:2
“Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the traditions just as I delivered them to you.”
1 Cor. 15:3
“For I delivered [passed on, “traditioned”] to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures
1 Cor. 11:23
“For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered [“traditioned”] to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread….”
2 Tim. 1:13
Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.
Gal. 1:8
“…if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.”
The Scriptures are often misused or misinterpreted:
Matthew 4:5-6
Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written:
‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’”
Jn. 5:39
“You [the Jews] search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.”
Acts 8:30-31
“So Philip ran to him [the Ethiopian Eunuch], and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’ And he said, ‘How can I, unless someone guides me?’ And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him.”
2 Pet. 3:16
[There] “are some things hard to understand [in St. Paul’s Epistles], which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.”
2 Pet. 1:20-21
“…knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”
Non-Canonical O.T. writings becomes New Testament Scripture:
Jude 14
“Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, ‘Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.’”
Solo Scriptura should be judged by its fruit:
Matthew 7:15-20
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
Early Church Fathers
Papias, Bishop of Hieropolis in Asia Minor (60-130AD):
“Unlike most people, I felt at home not with those who had a great deal to say, but with those who taught the truth; not with those who appeal to commandments from other sources but with those who appeal to the commandments given by the Lord to faith and coming to us from truth itself. And whenever anyone came who had been a follower of the presbyters [i.e. apostles], I inquired into the words of the presbyters, what Andrew or Peter had said, or Philip or Thomas or James or John or Matthew, or any other disciple of the Lord, and what Aristion and the presbyter John, disciples of the Lord, were still saying. For I did not imagine that things out of the books would help me as much as the utterances of a living and abiding voice.” (Quoted by Eusebius).
Hegesippus (110-180AD):
“When I had come to Rome, I [visited] Anicetus, whose deacon was Eleutherus. And after Anicetus [died], Soter succeeded, and after him Eleutherus. In each succession and in each city there is a continuance of that which is proclaimed by the law, the prophets, and the Lord” (Memoirs, cited in Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 4:22 [A.D. 180]).
Letter to Diognetus (150-190AD):
I am not speaking of things that are strange to me, nor is my undertaking unreasonable, for I have been a disciple of apostles, and now I am becoming a teacher of the Gentiles. The things that pertain to the tradition I try to minister fittingly to those who are becoming disciples of the truth.
Irenaeus of Lyon (125-202AD):
“We should not seek from others the truth which can easily be received from the Church. For in her, as in a rich treasury, the Apostles placed in fullness all that belongs to the truth, so that whoever wishes can receive from her the water of life. She is the entrance to life.”
“It is within the power of all, therefore, in every church, who may wish to see the truth, to contemplate clearly the tradition of the apostles manifested throughout the whole world.”
“As I said before, the Church, having received this preaching and this faith, although she is disseminated throughout the whole world, yet guarded it, as if she occupied but one house. She likewise believes these things just as if she had but one soul and one and the same heart; and harmoniously she proclaims them and teaches them and hands them down, as if she possessed but one mouth. For, while the languages of the world are diverse, nevertheless, the authority of the tradition is one and the same” (Against Heresies 1:10:2 [A.D. 189]).
“For although the languages of the world are different, yet the import of the tradition is one and the same. For the churches which have been planted in Germany do not believe or hand down anything different, nor do those in Spain, nor those in Gaul.” (1.330, 331).*
“When, however, they [the Gnostics] are confuted from the Scriptures, they turn around and accuse these same Scriptures as if they were not correct….But, again, when we refer them to that tradition which originates from the apostles, which is preserved by means of the successions of presbyters in the churches, they object to tradition, saying that they themselves are wiser not merely than the presbyters, but even than the apostles.” (1.415).*
“In this order, and by this succession, the ecclesiastical tradition from the apostles and the preaching of the truth have come down to us. And this is most abundant proof that there is one and the same life-giving faith, which has been preserved in the church from the apostles until now, and handed down in truth.” (1.416)*
“Papias [A.D. 120], who is now mentioned by us, affirms that he received the sayings of the apostles from those who accompanied them, and he, moreover, asserts that he heard in person Aristion and the presbyter John. Accordingly, he mentions them frequently by name, and in his writings gives their traditions [concerning Jesus]. . . . [There are] other passages of his in which he relates some miraculous deeds, stating that he acquired the knowledge of them from tradition” (fragment in Eusebius, Church History 3:39 [A.D. 312]).
“In the third place from the apostles, Clement was allotted the bishopric. This man had seen the blessed apostles and had been conversant with them. Therefore, he might be said to have the preaching of the apostles still echoing [in his ears] and their traditions before his eyes. Nor was he alone in this. For there were many still remaining who had received instructions from the apostles. (1.416)*
Now all these [heretics] are of much later date than the bishops to whom the apostles committed the Churches; which fact I have in the third book taken all pains to demonstrate. It follows, then, as a matter of course, that these heretics aforementioned, since they are blind to the truth, and deviate from the [right] way, will walk in various roads; and therefore the footsteps of their doctrine are scattered here and there without agreement or connection. But the path of those belonging to the Church circumscribes the whole world, as possessing the sure tradition from the apostles, and gives unto us to see that the faith of all is one and the same, since all receive one and the same God the Father, and believe in the same dispensation regarding the incarnation of the Son of God, and are cognizant of the same gift of the Spirit, and are conversant with the same commandments, and preserve the same form of ecclesiastical constitution, and expect the same advent of the Lord, and await the same salvation of the complete man, that is, of the soul and body. And undoubtedly the preaching of the Church is true and steadfast, in which one and the same way of salvation is shown throughout the whole world. [Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book 5, Ch. 20]
Clement of Alexandria (150-215AD):
“Well, they preserving the tradition of the blessed doctrine derived directly from the holy apostles, Peter, James, John, and Paul, the sons receiving it from the father (but few were like the fathers), came by God’s will to us also to deposit those ancestral and apostolic seeds. And well I know that they will exult; I do not mean delighted with this tribute, but solely on account of the preservation of the truth, according as they delivered it. For such a sketch as this, will, I think, be agreeable to a soul desirous of preserving from loss the blessed tradition” (Miscellanies 1:1 [A.D. 208]).
“The dogmas taught by strange sects will be brought forward. And against these dogmas will be opposed all those things that should be premised in accordance with the profoundest contemplation of the knowledge that will advance to our view, as we proceed to the renowned and venerable canon of tradition. (2.302).*
“It is necessary for men to abandon impious opinion and turn from there to the true tradition. (2.530).*
“He, who has spurned the ecclesiastic tradition and darted off to the opinions of heretical men—he has ceased to be a man of God and to remain faithful to the Lord. (2.551).*
“The tradition of the apostles was one. (2.555).*
Tertullian (160-220AD):
For wherever it shall be manifest that the true Christian rule and faith shall be, there will likewise be the true Scriptures and expositions thereof, and all the Christian traditions. [Tertullian, The Prescription Against Heretics, Ch. 19]
Error of doctrine in the churches must necessarily have produced various issues. When, however, that which is deposited among many is found to be one and the same, it is not the result of error, but of tradition. Can any one, then, be reckless enough to say that they were in error who handed on the tradition? [Tertullian, The Prescription Against Heretics, Ch. 28]
Since this is the case, in order that the truth may be adjudged to belong to us, as many as walk according to the rule, which the church has handed down from the apostles, the apostles from Christ, and Christ from God, the reason of our position is clear, when it determines that heretics ought not to be allowed to challenge an appeal to the Scriptures, since we, without the Scriptures, prove that they have nothing to do with the Scriptures. For as they are heretics, they cannot be true Christians, because it is not from Christ that they get that which they pursue of their own mere choice, and from the pursuit incur and admit the name of heretics. Thus, not being Christians, they have acquired no right to the Christian Scriptures. [Tertullian, The Prescription Against Heretics, Ch. 37]
Where diversity of doctrine is found, there, then, must the corruption both of the Scriptures and the expositions thereof be regarded as existing… What we are ourselves, that also the Scriptures are (and have been) from the beginning. Of them we have our being, before there was any other way, before they were interpolated by you… One man perverts the Scriptures with his hand, another their meaning by his exposition.” [Tertullian, The Prescription Against Heretics, Ch. 38]
“We are in communion with the apostolic churches because there is no difference of doctrine….This test will be applied to those churches of a later date, which are daily being founded. Though they cannot therefore produce an Apostle or an apostolic man for their founder, still, if they unite in holding the same faith, they equally are reckoned apostolic because of the kinship of their teaching.” [The Prescription Against Heretics]
“If, for these and other such rules, you insist upon having positive Scripture injunction, you will find none. Tradition will be held forth to you as the originator of the them….These instances, therefore, will make it sufficiently plain that you can vindicate the keeping of even unwritten tradition established by custom. The proper witness for tradition is its demonstration by long-continued observance.” (3.95).*
“You [the church] lay down a rule that this faith has its solemnities appointed by either the Scriptures or the tradition of the forefathers. No further addition in the way of observance must be added, because innovation is unlawful.” (4.111).*
Origen (185-254AD)
“The teaching of the Church has indeed been handed down through an order of succession from the apostles and remains in the churches even to the present time. That alone is to be believed as the truth which is in no way at variance with ecclesiastical and apostolic tradition” (The Fundamental Doctrines 1:2 [A.D. 225]).
Cyprian of Carthage (martyred 258AD):
“[T]he Church is one, and as she is one, cannot be both within and without. For if she is with Novatian [a schismatic], she was not with [Pope] Cornelius. But if she was with Cornelius, who succeeded the bishop Fabian by lawful ordination, and whom, beside the honor of the priesthood the Lord glorified also with martyrdom, Novatian is not in the Church; nor can he be reckoned as a bishop, who, succeeding to no one, and despising the evangelical and apostolic tradition, sprang from himself. For he who has not been ordained in the Church can neither have nor hold to the Church in any way” (Letters 75:3 [A.D. 253]).
“Know that we do not depart from the tradition of the Gospel and of the apostles. Rather, with constancy and firmness, we…maintain the discipline of the church.” (5.357).*
“The bishops who are set over the churches of the Lord by divine grace, throughout the whole world, maintain the plan of evangelical truth and of the tradition of the Lord. They do not depart, by human and novel institution, from that which Christ our Master both commanded and did.” (5.359).*
“You must diligently observe and keep the practice delivered from divine tradition and apostolic observance, which is also maintained among us and almost throughout all the provinces.” (5371).*
Eusebius of Caesarea (263-339AD):
“At that time [A.D. 150] there flourished in the Church Hegesippus, whom we know from what has gone before, and Dionysius, bishop of Corinth, and another bishop, Pinytus of Crete, and besides these, Philip, and Apollinarius, and Melito, and Musanus, and Modestus, and, finally, Irenaeus. From them has come down to us in writing, the sound and orthodox faith received from tradition” (Church History 4:21).
“It is possible, then, for everyone in every church, who may wish to know the truth, to contemplate the tradition of the apostles which has been made known throughout the whole world. And we are in a position to enumerate those who were instituted bishops by the apostles and their successors to our own times—men who neither knew nor taught anything like these heretics rave about.
Athanasius of Alexandria (293-373AD):
“Again we write, again keeping to the apostolic traditions, we remind each other when we come together for prayer; and keeping the feast in common, with one mouth we truly give thanks to the Lord. Thus giving thanks unto him, and being followers of the saints, ‘we shall make our praise in the Lord all the day,’ as the psalmist says. So, when we rightly keep the feast, we shall be counted worthy of that joy which is in heaven” (Festal Letters 2:7 [A.D. 330]).
“But you are blessed, who by faith are in the Church, dwell upon the foundations of the faith, and have full satisfaction, even the highest degree of faith which remains among you unshaken. For it has come down to you from apostolic tradition, and frequently accursed envy has wished to unsettle it, but has not been able” (ibid., 29).
Epiphanius of Salamis (320-403AD):
“It is needful also to make use of tradition, for not everything can be gotten from sacred Scripture. The holy apostles handed down some things in the scriptures, other things in tradition” (Medicine Chest Against All Heresies 61:6 [A.D. 375]).
St. Basil the Great (On the Holy Spirit, Ch. 27) (born 330AD):
“Of the domas and sermons preserved in the Church, certain ones we have from written instruction, and certain ones we have received from the Apostolic Tradition, handed down in secret [i.e. private]. Both the one and the other have one and the same authority for piety, and no one who is even the least informed in the decrees of the Church will contradict this. For if we dare to overthrow the unwritten customs as if they did not have great importance, we shall thereby imperceptively do harm to the Gospel in its most important points. And even more, we shall be left with the empty name of the Apostolic preaching without content. For example, let us especially make note of the first and commonest thing: that those who hope in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ should sign themselves with the Sign of the Cross. Who taught this in Scripture? Which Scripture instructed us that we should turn to the east in prayer? Which of the saints left us in written form the words of invocation during the transformation of the bread of the Eucharist and the Chalice of blessing? For we are not satisfied with the words which are mentioned in the Epistles or the Gospels, but both before them and after them we pronounce others also as having great authority for the Mystery, having received them from the unwritten teaching. By what Scriptures, likewise, do we bless the water of Baptism and the oil of anointing [i.e. Chrism] and, indeed, the one being baptised himself? Is this not the silent and secret tradition? And what more? What written word has taught us this anointing with oil itself? Where is the triple immersion and all the rest that has to do with baptism, the renunciation of Satan and his angels to be found? What Scripture are these taken from? is it not from this unpublished and unspoken teaching which our Fathers have preserved in a silence inaccessible to curiosity and scrutiny, because they were thoroughly instructed to preserve in silence the sanctity of the Mysteries [i.e. Sacraments]? For what propriety would there be to proclaim in writing a teaching concerning that which it is not allowed for the unbaptised even to behold?
Augustine (354-430AD):
“…just as there are many things which are observed by the whole Church, and therefore are fairly held to have been enjoined by the apostles, which yet are not mentioned in their writings” (On Baptism, Against the Donatists 5:23[31] [A.D. 400]).
“But in regard to those observances which we carefully attend and which the whole world keeps, and which derive not from Scripture but from [oral] Tradition, we are given to understand that they are recommended and ordained to be kept, either by the apostles themselves or by plenary [ecumenical] councils, the authority of which is quite vital in the Church” (Letter to Januarius [A.D. 400]).
John Chrysostom (349-407):
“‘So then, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or by Epistle of ours’ (2 Th. 2:15). Hence it is manifest, that they did not deliver all things by Epistle, but many things also unwritten, and in like manner both the one and the other are worthy of credit. Therefore let us think the tradition of the Church also worthy of credit. It is a tradition, seek no further.” (Homilies on Second Thessalonians)
Vincent of Lerins (died 445AD):
“I have often then inquired earnestly and attentively of very many men eminent for sanctity and learning, how and by what sure and so to speak universal rule I may be able to distinguish the truth of catholic faith from the falsehood of heretical pravity; and I have always, and in almost every instance, received an answer to this effect: That whether I or any one else should wish to detect the frauds and avoid the snares of heretics as they rise, and to continue sound and complete in the catholic faith, we must, the Lord helping, fortify our own belief in two ways; first, by the authority of the Divine Law, and then, by the Tradition of the catholic Church. (Commonitory, Chapter II).
“But here some one perhaps will ask, Since the canon of Scripture is complete, and sufficient of itself for everything, and more than sufficient, what need is there to join with it the authority of the Church’s interpretation? For this reason, – because, owing to the depth of Holy Scripture, all do not accept it in one and the same sense, but one understands its words in one way, another in another; so that it seems to be capable of as many interpretations as there are interpreters.
For Novatian expounds it one way, Sabellius another, Donatus another, Arius, Eunomius, Macedonius, another, Photinus, Apollinaris, Priscillian, another, Iovinian, Pelagius, Celestius, another, lastly, Nestorius another. Therefore, it is very necessary, on account of so great intricacies of such various error, that the rule for the right understanding of the prophets and apostles should be framed in accordance with the standard of ecclesiastical and catholic interpretation.” (Commonitory, Chapter II).
“Moreover, in the catholic Church itself, all possible care must be taken, that we hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all. For that is truly and in the strictest sense “catholic,” which, as the name itself and the reason of the thing declare, comprehends all universally. This rule we shall observe if we follow universality, antiquity, consent. We shall follow universality if we confess that one faith to be true, which the whole Church throughout the world confesses; antiquity, if we in no wise depart from those interpretations which it is manifest were notoriously held by our holy ancestors and fathers; consent, in like manner, if in antiquity itself we adhere to the consentient definitions and determinations of all, or at the least of almost all priests and doctors.” (Commonitory, Chapter II).
[1] While this is true, we must also recognize that such a gift must be recognized both by the faithful and by the bishop responsible for such a person. In the Orthodox Church we place humility and obedience above gifts. A very gifted person may lose his salvation due to pride expressed by unwillingness to submit to the authority that God ordained within the Church. The Scriptures clearly teach that not all Christians are called to be teachers (1 Cor. 12:29).
[2] Against Heresies 1:10:2 [A.D. 189]
[3] The Fundamental Doctrines 1:2 [A.D. 225].