The Gospels and Oral Tradition

The Gospel of Mark 4:34 contains the follo’wing:

But without a parable spake he not unto them: and when they were alone, he expounded all things to his disciples

It is unthinkable that none of these were transmitted by them to the people. It is all the more impossible to suggest that the disciples should depend on those traditions while the people of our time should not.

The Gospel of John 21:25 says:

And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.

Though the above statement is an exaggeration, there is no doubt that there must be many things that Jesus did in his life, be they miracles or other acts that might have not been written down by the disciples.

We read in II Thessalonians 2:15:

Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word or by our epistle.

The last sentence is clear in implying that part of Christ’s teachings were communicated orally and another in writing, both of them equally valuable according to Chrysostom.

I Corinthians 11:34 (Arabic version 1844) has:

And the rest will I set in order when I come.

It is obvious that, since the commands promised by Paul in the above statement are not found in writing, they must have been communicated orally

II Timothy 1:13 says:

Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hadst heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.

The phrase, “Which thou hadst heard of me, ”clearly indicates that some teachings were communicated orally by him. The same letter contains the following in 2:2:

And the things that thou hadst heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.

II John also says at the end:

Having many things to write unto you, I would not write with paper and ink: I trust to come unto you, and speak face to face, that our joy be full. 4[4]

And at the end of the Third Epistle of John we find:

I had many things to write, but I will not with ink and pen write unto thee: But I trust I shall shortly see thee, and we shall speak face to face. 5[5]

The above two verses give us to understand that John taught many things orally as he promised. Now those things can only have been passed on orally.

In view of the above, it is clearly sheer ignorance for any Protestant to deny the status and value of the oral tradition. Any such claim would be a claim against the sacred books and the decisions of the ancient Christians, and according to some of them such a claimant should be considered a heretic. Besides, Protestants owe many doctrines invented by their elders to oral tradition, for example their belief that the Son is equal to the Father in his essence; that the Holy Ghost’s existence is through the Son and the Father; that Christ is one person possessing two natures at the same time; that he has two wills, human and divine; and that he entered hell after his death. In fact none of these absurdities can be found in the New Testament. The inclusion of all such concepts in their faith comes only through oral tradition.

This denial of oral tradition also entails the denial of some parts of the sacred books. For example, the Gospels of Mark and Luke and nineteen chapters of the book of Acts were written through oral tradition. They were not written through revelation or through vision, as we have discussed in an earlier volume. Similarly five chapters (5 to 9) of the Book of Proverbs would also be denied because they were collected through those oral traditions that were current in the time of Hezekiah. The compilation of these chapters are separated by two hundred and seventy years from the death of the Prophet Solomon. We read in the Book of Proverbs 25:1:

These are also proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah, King of Judah copied out.

The following are the comments of Adam Clarke on the above verse as found in his commentary printed in 1801:

It seems that the Proverbs referred to above were collected under the orders of Hezekiah from the oral traditions that were current among them from the time of Solomon. Afterwards they were added as a supplement to this book. Probably Hezekiah’s friends were Isaiah and Sophanias who were among the Prophets of those times. In that case this supplement would also acquire the status of the other books, otherwise it would have not been included in the sacred books.

The above provides sufficient proof that oral traditions were collected under the orders of the King Hezekiah. His presumption that those copiers were also Prophets cannot be accepted unless it is sup- ported by some reliable authority or convincing arguments which the author has not provided.

Again his premise that their inclusion in the sacred books should be a proof that the copiers were Prophets is obviously a wrong conclusion because the oral traditions are held in respect by the Jews than the Torah itself. The present Torah was collected nearly 1700 years after the collection of the oral tradition, which is acknowledged by the Jews as the word of God. Similarly they accept the Babylonian Gemara as an authentic book, though the traditions it contains were collected 200 years later. There was nothing to stop them from including these five chapters in the sacred books.

4[4] . II John 12.


5[5] . III John 13-14.