Opus 2025-606: Oral Tradition Instead of Written Word

I am engaged in an ongoing crusade against traditions that fly in the face of the written word.  Jesus deals with this in Matthew 15.  Interestingly enough the editors picked the title “Traditions and Commandments” for this section of scripture.  

The Pharisees are nagging Jesus because His disciples had not washed their hands before they ate.  Evidently there is no place in the written law that demands this but the traditions of the Rabbis made a big deal of it.  So Jesus says,

(Mat 15:3 KJV)  But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?

In the following conversation He repeats this again,

(Mat 15:6 KJV)  And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.

He emphasizes it again by quoting Isaiah,

(Mat 15:9 KJV)  But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

When I looked this up I got excited when I read it in the NASB.

Isaiah 29:13 (NASB95) Then the Lord said, “Because this people draw near with their words And honor Me with their lip service, But they remove their hearts far from Me, And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote,

The phrase “by rote” spoke to me of the oral tradition that was replacing the written law.  Alas, I noticed the phrase was in italics.  It was an interpretation but the actual words were strong enough.  What Isaiah was saying hundreds of years before Jesus was that already the religious leaders were replacing the words of God with the words of men.

This is something that is still alive today.  We have doctrines and practices that have wandered away from what God actually says.  A good example of this is the often heard statement that we are saved by “faith alone”.  Do some looking at what the Bible actually says.  Faith is required.  There is no question about that but the only place in the Bible where the idea appears is in denial.  Do a word search.  Don’t take my word for it.  What does the Bible say.  Don’t replace the word with my tradition.

My word searches come up with two place where the two words are in the same verse.  One is in the KJV.

(Jas 2:17 KJV)  Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

The other is in the NASB,

(Jas 2:24 NAS77) You see that a man is justified by works, and not by faith alone.

Again notice it is not denying the requirement of faith.  It is just saying inactive belief is rather empty.

Go with your favorite translation not with your favorite theologian.

homo unius libri