On Authority, Part 2: On the Apostolic Tradition

In part 1 of this series, I introduced the process of traditioning and documented how it was used in the Bible. In this post I will trace how this traditioning process was used in the early church. First we will construct a narrative for the traditioning process up to and including the apostles. Second, we will explore the importance of the oral component of the tradition.

The Christian Tradition in the Apostolic Era

From Scripture we can reconstruct this narrative about the uniquely Christian tradition and the initial stages of its transmission:

1. God the Father is the ultimate source of the Christian tradition, and the Son is the agent through whom it is initially transmitted: "All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him" (Matthew 11:27).
2. As the incarnate Word of God, the Son orally transmits a portion of the tradition to his apostles, and the remainder of the tradition he transmits through the agency of the Holy Spirit: "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you" (John 16:12-15). 
3. The content of the apostolic tradition is called the "deposit of faith", and it was transmitted so completely and with such high fidelity to the apostles as a group that it can be described as being "once for all delivered": "Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. (Jude 1:3).
4. No one apostle necessarily possessed the full deposit personally himself, so Jesus established the principal of conciliarity when needing to arbitrate the fidelity of transmission:
   

   If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them. (Matthew 18:15-20)

5. The Jerusalem council of Acts 15 illustrates the principle of conciliarity in action. The apostles as a group arbitrated between conflicting traditions. And their conclusion indicates that both conciliarity and the Holy Spirit were factors in the determination: "For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements ... " (Acts 15:28).
6. Paul lays out the the process of transmission beyond the apostles: "You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also" (2 Timothy 2:1-2). Paul entrusts the deposit of faith--and the responsibility to transmit it--to Timothy in front of witnesses, and then Timothy should do the same in turn, and "the grace that is in Christ Jesus" is the power behind the process.
7. The tradition consists of not just what the apostles wrote but also what they orally preached and taught: "So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter." (2 Thessalonians 2:15), and both components are authoritative and need to be faithfully transmitted.

The Oral Component of the Apostolic Tradition

For readers in the Evangelical Protestant tradition, a discussion of the oral component of the Apostolic Tradition might sound unfamiliar. Steeped in the presuppositions of Sola Scriptura, they might not even realize that their worldview is entirely anachronistic, that is, the early church did not subscribe to this doctrine nor could it. Others more skillful than I have already written on the problems of Sola Scriptura (and its followup) and the strength of oral tradition. So in this section I will limit myself to the following: 1) the Biblical case for an oral component to Apostolic Tradition, 2) the early church's testimony to its existence, and 3) identifying where we can find this oral component subsequently recorded?

The Biblical Case for an Oral Component

In the preface to his Gospel, Luke writes the following:

Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught. (Luke 1:1-4)

Here Luke makes clear that the source for his Gospel is the oral tradition that has been passed down to him. In other words, there existed an oral tradition, and he took a portion of it and committed it to writing. The oral tradition was primary.

The author of the Gospel of John writes this as his last verse: "Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written" (Luke 1:1-4). In other words, Jesus said and did so many things that most things were left to oral transmission.

We have an example of this in Acts 20:35, where Paul says "In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'" This quote by Jesus is not recorded in the canonical Gospels. Thus, Paul was quoting from the oral tradition of Jesus's words here. Sayings of Jesus that are not recorded in the canonical gospels have a special name Agrapha, and that links show many other examples. The force of all this is that the four canonical gospels are merely the transcription of a small subset of the tradition that Jesus orally transmitted to the apostles.

And in the same way, the apostles used oral transmission of the tradition (preaching) most of the time. Paul's epistles are a very small portion of the transmitting that he did of the tradition, and in them, he frequently refers back to the oral transmission as authoritative (1 Thess 2:13, 4:1; 2 Thess 2:15, 3:6; 1 Cor 11:2, 15:1-3) and even more authoritative than a subsequent transmission (Gal 1:8-9; cf. 2 Thess 2:2).

For someone to claim that the apostolic deposit of faith was circumscribed by the 27 books of the New Testament is to deny how those books describe the transmission of the deposit and is to be ignorant of how societies operated before the invention of the printing press and its handmaiden, widespread literacy. The oral component of the apostolic tradition pre-existed the written component, was vastly larger in size, and was as authoritative.

The Early Church's Testimony to an Oral Component 

At this point I need to clarify a point of terminology. The distinction between the written and oral components of the apostolic tradition properly refers to the distinction between the New Testament writings and everything else in the apostolic tradition. It does not imply that oral components were never later written down. In fact, as history progressed more and more of the oral component was written down, but that does not mean that it "graduated" to become part of the written component. Any part of the apostolic tradition that exists outside of the canon of Scripture is oral tradition--even if subsequently written down.

Another important consideration is that open communion is not just a modern invention, it is an invention of the late 20th century (https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/glory2godforallthings/2013/11/19/the-politics-of-the-cup/#comment-71807). In the ancient church, things were very different. For a number of reasons (persecution being one), when the Mysteries were performed--baptism and Eucharist--those outside of the Church were not present. The divine liturgy is divided into two parts: the liturgy of the catechumens and the liturgy of the faithful, and the dividing line is the line "Catechumens, depart!" at which time all the unbaptized as well as those under penitential canons and unable to receive communion recessed out of the nave. The Holy Mysteries were secret. The order of the services was not written down, but was only transmitted orally; and in what was preserved in secret was contained the essential side of the faith. This is a very well documented fact, and it is important because it not only documents the existence of an oral component but also explains the reason that it continued to be strictly oral for such a long time.

We want to look at several quotes by St. Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem, who died in 386 AD. He prepared a number of catechetical lectures to give to those catechumens who were on the verge of being baptized. Perhaps they had already completed multiple years of catechesis, but now they are about to be baptized and so he teaches them the final things that had been kept secret from them during their entire previous catechumenate. Because he wrote down these lectures for future reference, we have a written record of what he told them, but notice the absolute secrecy to which he is binding the hearers as well as any future readers in the prologue:

When, therefore, the Lecture is delivered, if a Catechumen ask thee what the teachers have said, tell nothing to him that is without.  For we deliver to thee a mystery, and a hope of the life to come.  Guard the mystery for Him who gives the reward.  Let none ever say to thee, What harm to thee, if I also know it?  So too the sick ask for wine; but if it be given at a wrong time it causes delirium, and two evils arise; the sick man dies, and the physician is blamed.  Thus is it also with the Catechumen, if he hear anything from the believer:  both the Catechumen becomes delirious (for he understands not what he has heard, and finds fault with the thing, and scoffs at what is said), and the believer is condemned as a traitor.  But thou art now standing on the border:  take heed, pray, to tell nothing out; not that the things spoken are not worthy to be told, but because his ear is unworthy to receive.  Thou wast once thyself a Catechumen, and I described not what lay before thee.  When by experience thou hast learned how high are the matters of our teaching, then thou wilt know that the Catechumens are not worthy to hear them.

(To the Reader.) These Catechetical Lectures for those who are to be enlightened thou mayest lend to candidates for Baptism, and to believers who are already baptized, to read, but give not at all, neither to Catechumens, nor to any others who are not Christians, as thou shalt answer to the Lord.  And if thou make a copy, write this in the beginning, as in the sight of the Lord (http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf207.ii.iv.html chapters 12 and 18)

And then in the fifth lecture he writes the following about the Creed he is about to teach:

We comprise the whole doctrine of the Faith in a few lines.  This summary I wish you both to commit to memory when I recite it, and to rehearse it with all diligence among yourselves, not writing it out on paper, but engraving it by the memory upon your heart, taking care while you rehearse it that no Catechumen chance to overhear the things which have been delivered to you. (http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf207.ii.ix.html chapter 12)

So we see that there was an oral component to the apostolic tradition, and even until the late 4th century, diligence was practiced to make sure that only those who were deemed likely to be worthy transmitters of it (as signified through baptism) were entitled to hear the oral component in order to prevent its mistransmission by others.

The next witness is St. Basil the Great, bishop of Caesarea, who died in AD 379. In his treatise On the Holy Spirit, he speaks extensively on the oral component of the apostolic tradition, citing very specific practices that were accepted as having apostolic authority even though never documented in the New Testament. Even though it is a long quote, I quote it in its entirety because of its importance:

Of the beliefs and practices whether generally accepted or publicly enjoined which are preserved in the Church some we possess derived from written teaching; others we have received delivered to us "in a mystery" by the tradition of the apostles; and both of these in relation to true religion have the same force. And these no one will gainsay;—no one, at all events, who is even moderately versed in the institutions of the Church. For were we to attempt to reject such customs as have no written authority, on the ground that the importance they possess is small, we should unintentionally injure the Gospel in its very vitals; or, rather, should make our public definition a mere phrase and nothing more. For instance, to take the first and most general example, who is thence who has taught us in writing to sign with the sign of the cross those who have trusted in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ? What writing has taught us to turn to the East at the prayer? Which of the saints has left us in writing the words of the invocation at the displaying of the bread of the Eucharist and the cup of blessing? For we are not, as is well known, content with what the apostle or the Gospel has recorded, but both in preface and conclusion we add other words as being of great importance to the validity of the ministry, and these we derive from unwritten teaching. Moreover we bless the water of baptism and the oil of the chrism, and besides this the catechumen who is being baptized. On what written authority do we do this? Is not our authority silent and mystical tradition? Nay, by what written word is the anointing of oil itself taught? And whence comes the custom of baptizing thrice? And as to the other customs of baptism from what Scripture do we derive the renunciation of Satan and his angels? Does not this come from that unpublished and secret teaching which our fathers guarded in a silence out of the reach of curious meddling and inquisitive investigation? Well had they learnt the lesson that the awful dignity of the mysteries is best preserved by silence. What the uninitiated are not even allowed to look at was hardly likely to be publicly paraded about in written documents. What was the meaning of the mighty Moses in not making all the parts of the tabernacle open to every one? The profane he stationed without the sacred barriers; the first courts he conceded to the purer; the Levites alone he judged worthy of being servants of the Deity; sacrifices and burnt offerings and the rest of the priestly functions he allotted to the priests; one chosen out of all he admitted to the shrine, and even this one not always but on only one day in the year, and of this one day a time was fixed for his entry so that he might gaze on the Holy of Holies amazed at the strangeness and novelty of the sight. Moses was wise enough to know that contempt stretches to the trite and to the obvious, while a keen interest is naturally associated with the unusual and the unfamiliar. In the same manner the Apostles and Fathers who laid down laws for the Church from the beginning thus guarded the awful dignity of the mysteries in secrecy and silence, for what is bruited abroad random among the common folk is no mystery at all. This is the reason for our tradition of unwritten precepts and practices, that the knowledge of our dogmas may not become neglected and contemned by the multitude through familiarity. "Dogma" and "Kerugma" are two distinct things; the former is observed in silence; the latter is proclaimed to all the world. One form of this silence is the obscurity employed in Scripture, which makes the meaning of "dogmas" difficult to be understood for the very advantage of the reader: Thus we all look to the East at our prayers, but few of us know that we are seeking our own old country, Paradise, which God planted in Eden in the East. We pray standing, on the first day of the week, but we do not all know the reason. On the day of the resurrection (or "standing again" Grk. ἀνάστασις) we remind ourselves of the grace given to us by standing at prayer, not only because we rose with Christ, and are bound to "seek those things which are above," but because the day seems to us to be in some sense an image of the age which we expect, wherefore, though it is the beginning of days, it is not called by Moses first, but one. For he says "There was evening, and there was morning, one day," as though the same day often recurred. Now "one" and "eighth" are the same, in itself distinctly indicating that really "one" and "eighth" of which the Psalmist makes mention in certain titles of the Psalms, the state which follows after this present time, the day which knows no waning or eventide, and no successor, that age which endeth not or groweth old. Of necessity, then, the church teaches her own foster children to offer their prayers on that day standing, to the end that through continual reminder of the endless life we may not neglect to make provision for our removal thither. Moreover all Pentecost is a reminder of the resurrection expected in the age to come. For that one and first day, if seven times multiplied by seven, completes the seven weeks of the holy Pentecost; for, beginning at the first, Pentecost ends with the same, making fifty revolutions through the like intervening days. And so it is a likeness of eternity, beginning as it does and ending, as in a circling course, at the same point. On this day the rules of the church have educated us to prefer the upright attitude of prayer, for by their plain reminder they, as it were, make our mind to dwell no longer in the present but in the future. Moreover every time we fall upon our knees and rise from off them we shew by the very deed that by our sin we fell down to earth, and by the loving kindness of our Creator were called back to heaven. (http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf208.vii.xxviii.html chapter 66).

So we see from St. Basil the Great, one of the most influential defenders of the consubstantiality of the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son, that the oral component of the apostolic tradition has the "same force" as the written tradition and "were we to attempt to reject such customs as have no written authority, on the ground that the importance they possess is small, we should unintentionally injure the Gospel in its very vitals ..." Incidentally, this passage is part of an argument he is making about his Trinitarian formula. The argument goes like this: Given the fact that you accept all these practices as having apostolic authority because they are part of the oral tradition and thus are not recorded in Scripture, why do you reject this formula which also does not derives from Scripture given that it also does derive from oral tradition?

So we see that the early church recognized, guarded, and prized the oral component of the apostolic tradition. It can be traced back to the earliest period of the Church. And it was carefully preserved and unanimously acknowledged during the epoch of the great Fathers of the Church and the beginning of the Ecumenical Councils.

The Literary Sources of the Oral Component

As I mentioned earlier, portions of the oral component were written down over time outside of the New Testament. The question is where can we as 21st century believers locate it? For this I will be pulling from a book by Fr. Michael Pomazansky called Orthodox Dogmatic Theology. These are the seven places he documents where readers can find the oral component of the apostolic tradition written down in the 21st century:

1. in the most ancient record of the Church, the Canons of the Holy Apostles [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf07.ix.ix.vi.html];
2. in the Symbols of Faith of the ancient local churches [these would predate the Nicene Creed. An example is the Apostle's Creed; others are listed here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christian_creeds#Local_and_Regional_Creeds_of_the_Early_Church];
3. in the ancient Liturgies, in the rite of Baptism, and in other ancient prayers [e.g., the Liturgy of St. James];
4. in the ancient Acts of the Christian martyrs. The Acts of the martyrs did not enter into use by the faithful until they had been examined and approved by the local bishops; and they were read at the public gatherings of Christians under the supervision of the leaders of the churches. In them we see the confession of the Most Holy Trinity, the Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, examples of the invocation of the saints, of belief in the conscious life of those who had reposed in Christ, and much else; [https://oca.org/saints/lives is the best source but it does not separate the ancient martyrs from later saints so you have to know the ancient martyrs name first and then find his acts]
5. in the ancient records of the history of the Church, especially in the book of Eusebius Pamphili, Bishop of Caesarea,where there are gathered many ancient traditions of rite and dogma — in particular, there is given the canon of the sacred books of the Old and New Testaments; [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201]
6. in the works of the ancient Fathers and teachers of the Church; [http://www.ccel.org/fathers.html]
7. and, finally, in the very spirit of the Church's life, in the preservation of faithfulness to all her foundations which come from the Holy Apostles.

In this post we presented a narrative for how the apostolic tradition came about. Then we drilled down on the oral component of it, which is often at least overlooked but sometimes even despised in Evangelical traditions.

On Authority, Part 1: On the Scriptural Basis of the Traditioning Process

A friend recently asked me this question: "I ... wondered how you now conceive of your sources of authority. How do you conceive now of the authority of the Scriptures? Are they ultimate in authority, or part of a wider 'stream' of inspiration and authority?" This question deserves a substantial reply, so I am going to use multiple blog posts to answer it.

Although the question does not used the word tradition, I understand it to be asking about my relationship to tradition. In the Evangelical tradition of my upbringing, the word tradition was a bad word. It was mainly used pejoratively to ridicule people of other faith traditions, most notably Roman Catholics. Ironically, the pejorative users of this word rarely ever realized that they had their own traditions and unconsciously operated within them. In retrospect, one of the differences between the Evangelicalism I experienced and Orthodoxy is that of self-awareness. As an Evangelical--unaware or even in denial of the fact that I was the recipient of and practitioner of a tradition--I had no category for critically evaluating and consciously embracing a tradition; whereas, as an Orthodox, I very consciously embrace a tradition, and as a convert to Orthodoxy even had to critically evaluate competing traditions to decide which to embrace.

As an anthropological concept, the traditioning process has two components: the passing on and the receiving. These concepts are both spoken of and illustrated in the Bible, and in the Scriptural vocabulary, tradition is a neutral term--whether it is a bad thing or a good thing depends upon the context. Unfortunately, an anti-tradition bias has frequently crept into Evangelical edited translations of the Bible so that the same Greek word is translated as tradition when meaning something bad and teaching when meaning something good. Compare the NIV's translation of Matthew 15:3 and 2 Thessalonians 3:6, which both speak of παράδοσις but translates Matthew 15:3 with a negatively connotated tradition and Thessalonians 3:6 with a positively connotated teaching.

So in this blog post I will attempt to lay out the documentary evidence for tradition--as an anthropological process--in the Bible. I want to do two things: 1) list the data to establish the neutrality of tradition as a Biblical concept and then 2) illustrate its implementation in the Bible even when not using the technical vocabulary of tradition. Later blog posts will explore Sacred Tradition and its specific components and processes.

The Data

In the New Testament, the technical vocabulary includes three words. All of these words have meanings outside of the traditioning process, so here I will focus on their usage when part of a traditioning process:

1. The noun παράδοσις, which refers to both the traditioning process, that is,  "a giving over which is done by word of mouth or in writing, i.e. tradition by instruction, narrative, precept, etc." as well as the content being being passed down, this is, "that which is delivered, the substance of a teaching"
2. The verb παραδίδωμι, which means to "deliver verbally commands or rites"
3. The verb παραλαμβάνω, which means "to receive something transmitted, to receive with the mind by oral transmission: of the authors from whom the tradition proceeds"

Look at these three tables.

παράδοσις

Reference	Usage	Comments
Mat 15:2	“Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.”	Negative
Mat 15:3	He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?	Negative
Mat 15:6	he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God.	Negative
Mar 7:3	(For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders,	Negative
Mar 7:5	And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”	Negative
Mar 7:8	You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”	Negative
Mar 7:9	And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!	Negative
Mar 7:13	thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”	Negative
1Co 11:2	Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you.	Positive
Gal 1:14	And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.	Negative
Col 2:8	See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.	Negative
2Th 2:15	So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.	Positive. Note that the there are written and oral components to the tradition.
2Th 3:6	Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us.	Positive

παράδοσις is used negatively 10 times and positively 3 times. Other than establishing its neutrality as a word, I think we can take away that it is important to critically examine the traditions passed on to us, the first step, of course, is to become aware of the fact that I am the recipient of traditions.

παραδίδωμι

Reference	Usage	Comments
Mat 11:27	All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.	There is a body of revelation that the Son of God received about the Father, and He has passed this on to His disciples.
Mar 7:13	thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”	Negative connotation
Luk 1:2	just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us,	The basis of Luke's content was oral tradition.
Luk 10:22	All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”	See comments on Matt 11:27
Act 6:14	for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us.”	The Jews had the perception that the customs they practiced were the selfsame customs that Moses had handed down.
Act 16:4	As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem.	The decree of the council of Jerusalem was a letter accompanied by men explaining the letter. The letter and its traditional explanation were later enscripturated by Luke.
Rom 6:17	But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,	Whoever first preached to the Romans passed on a body of oral tradition, and Paul commends them for their obedience to it.
1Co 11:2	Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you.	Paul commends the Corinthians for obeying that traditions he passed on to them long before he wrote them.
1Co 11:23	For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread,	Paul illustrates the traditioning process with respective to Eucharist.
1Co 15:3	For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,	Paul illustrates the traditioning process with respective to kerygma.
2Pe 2:21	For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.	The recipients of tradition are accountable for it upon knowing it.
Jde 1:3	Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.	The content of our faith is a body of revealed tradition that Jesus received from the Father (Matt 11:27) that He then passed on to the Apostles and through them to the holy ones. (John 16:12-15)

παραλαμβάνω

Reference	Usage	Comments
Mar 7:4	and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.)	traditions here is not the noun παράδοσις but rather the gerund of this verb. traditions = "those things they have received"
1Co 11:23	For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread,	Paul is an conduit in the traditioning process.
1Co 15:1	Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand,	The gospel is a component of tradition.
1Co 15:3	For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,	Paul is a conduit again.
Gal 1:9	As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.	There are competing traditions and we must practice discernment.
Gal 1:12	For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.	A portion of the tradition Paul received came by revelatory rather than oral transmission.
Phl 4:9	What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.	Paul again enjoys his audience to practice the things they received from him before they received a letter.
Col 2:6	Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him,
Col 4:17	And say to Archippus, “See that you fulfill the ministry that you have received in the Lord.”
1Th 2:13	And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.	The Thessalonians discerned that the source of Paul's tradition was God and not men and so received it.
1Th 4:1	Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more.	Be faithful to implement what has been received
2Th 3:6	Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us.	Excommunicate those who reject the tradition that was received.

In the above three tables we see that the traditioning process was alive and well in the New Testament and actively practice by the Apostles who often wrote letters to encourage the faithful keeping of the tradition passed on orally.

The Implementation

There are some passages in the Old and New Testaments that illustrate the traditioning process without so much using the technical vocabulary. Here are some examples:

Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. For Yahweh will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, Yahweh will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you. You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever. And when you come to the land that Yahweh will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service. And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of Yahweh's Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’” And the people bowed their heads and worshiped. (Exodus 12:21-27 ESV)

Every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. Every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem. And when in time to come your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you shall say to him, ‘By a strong hand Yahweh brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery. For when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, Yahweh killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of animals. Therefore I sacrifice to Yahweh all the males that first open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.’ (Exodus 13:13-15 ESV)

One of the purposes of a rite or ritual service is to create a setting wherein spiritual truth can be organically transmitted. The tradition includes not just the truth but the ritual tool for transmission.

“When your son asks you in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that Yahweh our God has commanded you?’ then you shall say to your son, ‘We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt. And Yahweh brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. And Yahweh showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes. And he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers. And Yahweh commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear Yahweh our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are this day. And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before Yahweh our God, as he has commanded us.’ (Deuteronomy 6:20-25 ESV)

Many of the laws in the Pentateuch are related to ritual purity rather than morality. Traditions of ritual purity were valuable tools for passing on spiritual truth. The tradition included both the ritual and the truth.

And Joshua said to them, “Pass on before the ark of Yahweh your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’ then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of Yahweh. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever.” 

And he said to the people of Israel, “When your children ask their fathers in times to come, ‘What do these stones mean?’ then you shall let your children know, ‘Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground.’ For Yahweh your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as Yahweh your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we passed over, so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of Yahweh is mighty, that you may fear Yahweh your God forever.” (Joshua 4:5-7, 21-24 ESV)

Shrines located at specific localities are valuable for passing on spiritual truth. The tradition included both the shrine and the truth.

Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;
incline your ears to the words of my mouth!
I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings from of old,
things that we have heard and known,
that our fathers have told us.
We will not hide them from their children,
but tell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of Yahweh, and his might,and the wonders that he has done.

He established a testimony in Jacob
and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers
to teach to their children,
that the next generation might know them, 
the children yet unborn,
and arise and tell them to their children, 
so that they should set their hope in God
and not forget the works of God, 
but keep his commandments;
and that they should not be like their fathers,
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation whose heart was not steadfast,
whose spirit was not faithful to God. (Psalm 78:1-8 ESV)

This Psalm documents the goal and the implementation of the traditioning process in the Old Testament. Psalms 48:13 and 22:31 also are good references.

You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. (2 Timothy 2:1-2 ESV)

This verse shows that the process documented in the Old Testament in Psalms 78 is at work in the New Testament.

Conclusion

In this post we see that tradition is a neutral anthropological process in the Bible. It can transmit good things and bad things. At the same time, the people of God in both the Old and New Testaments embraced it as the way to propagate information both within the same generation and between generations. And this traditioning process entailed not just abstract spiritual truth but also ritual in order to create a natural context for organically transmitting the truth.

On Salvation From An Eastern Perspective

Someone dear to me recently wrote and said that while reading a book by an Orthodox author, she ran into a stumbling block. This is the quote from the book with the challenging parts in bold:

Orthodox Christian Scriptures and saints all stress the necessity, and indeed the inevitability, of blessed mourning (penthos) over life in this sinful world. They say, as is often emphasized in Orthodox Church services, that without tears of sorrow over the "sin of the world" and one's own sins, and those of one's family and friends, no person can be saved. A human being who sees and experiences the grim realities of life in this world will necessarily weep as Jesus wept, and weep together with Him. "Blessed are they who mourn," Christ teaches, "for they shall be comforted" (Matt. 5:4). (from Christian Faith and Same Sex Attraction: Eastern Orthodox Reflections by Fr. Thomas Hopko of blessed memory).

I want to share my response to her below.

You said that "no person can be saved" is a "stumbling block". I think I can anticipate the reason, so I will do my best to explain what the text means.

My guess is that you instinctively disagree with the text because you have two assumptions about the word saved that I don't have:

• When you read the word saved, you primarily think of an event; whereas I think of a process.
• When you read the word saved, you primarily think in terms of a change of legal status from guilty to not guilty (a juridical model of salvation). When I read the word saved, on the other hand, I think primarily in terms of progress from unhealth to health (a therapeutic model of salvation).

So, let's break these down. I will use as much Scripture as I can because I know that this is your authority base. This will be long, so read slowly.

Event versus Process

In Sunday School, you probably heard this saying: "I was saved; I am being saved; I will be saved". Even at that age, my teacher was trying to communicate to me something of the progressive nature of salvation. When she unpacked that sentence, she meant this: When I prayed Jesus into my heart, I was justified. As I make good decisions in life, I am being sanctified. And after I die and I get a new body without sickness, I will be glorified. So even in the Baptist Church I was taught that there were technically three aspects of salvation: 1) a one-time event in the past, 2) a on-going process in the present of becoming more like Christ, and 3) a one-time event in the future. I might package it differently these days, but at its core, it was an important distinction.

Sadly, aspect 2 gets overlooked a lot, so let me quote some passages that are clearly using it in that sense:

• Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. (1 Cor 15:2)
• For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Cor 1:18)
• For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. (2 Cor 2:15)

A frequent communication obstacle occurs when western Christians (Catholics and Protestants) discuss salvation with eastern Christians (Orthodox). The reason is that in the West, the default aspect is the first one (the one-time event in the past) whereas in the East, the default aspect is the second one (the on-going process in the present). What does that mean? It means that if the author is a western Christian and he writes saved, you can assume he means a one-time event in the past--unless he explicitly indicates differently. On the other hand, if the author is an eastern Christian and he writes saved, you can assume he is referring to the on-going process in the present--unless he explicitly indicates otherwise.

So let's look again at the above stumbling block sentence. As a western Christian, maybe you read it like this: "Without tears of sorrow over the sins of the world, self, and family, a person cannot experience that one-time event where you go from the state of being unsaved to the state of being saved." Is that how you read it? I don't want to project here, but I would guess that that is how you read it.

On the other hand, as an eastern Christian, I would read it like this: "Without tears of sorrow over the sins of the world, self, and family, it is hard for a person to make progress in his on-going process of becoming more like Christ."

And maybe you still disagree with this second sentence, but you at least now have a better understanding of the way Christians from different backgrounds use the word saved to point to different default aspects.

Juridical Versus Therapeutic

This next part will get pretty deep, so read slowly.

In Christ, we are offered a "great salvation" (Hebrews 2:3), full of "precious and very great promises" (2 Peter 1:4). At the same time, as mere creatures and not the Creator, we are capable of comprehending this greatness in only a small way: "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:9).

Because of this limitation, whenever God wants to communicate truth to us, He has to accommodate our finiteness. That is, He uses metaphors or parables to help us grasp a part of the truth. We see Jesus’ using parables all the time, and the metaphors in the Bible are uncountable: God is a King, a Judge, a Shepherd, a Lamb, a Husband, a Rock, a Father, etc.

All the metaphors taken together create a very big and multifaceted mental picture of God, but it is hard to keep that complete multifaceted picture in the mind all at once. So different groups of people have focused on different subsets of the metaphors, and this has given each group a distinctive approach to Christianity.

Western Christianity, for example, has drawn heavily on juridical metaphors because it developed around Rome, which had a highly developed law system. For example, God is a wrathful Judge, we have guilt because of our sin, and Jesus’ blood satisfies the wrath of God through being our substitute. Thus, in the West, justification, or a change in legal status before God, is a dominant metaphor for understanding salvation.

Eastern Christianity, on the other hand, for whatever historical reasons, focused on the therapeutic metaphor. For example, the Church is a hospital and salvation is about getting truly healthy.

Again, I am not saying that either metaphor is right or wrong. They are all in the Bible. But because salvation is such an all-encompassing concept, we all tend to emphasize a metaphor by default. So, again, if you read a western Christian author and he uses the word saved, you can assume that he is talking about a legal change--unless he explicitly says otherwise. And if you read an eastern Christian author and he uses the word saved, you can assume that he is talking about progressing from unhealth to health--unless he explicitly says otherwise.

So let's look again at the above stumbling block sentence. As a western Christian, maybe you read it like this: "Without tears of sorrow over the sins of the world, self, and family, a person cannot change his legal state from guilty to not guilty".

As an Eastern Christian, I read it as "Without tears of sorrow over the sins of the world, self, and family, it is hard for a person to make progress in his healing."

And again you still might disagree with this second sentence, but you at least now have a better understanding of the Orthodox Christians use the word saved.

Extra Credit

The Greek word translated commonly as saved in the NT is interesting: sozo. You can read about it here: https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G4982&t=ESV

You can see that its primary meaning is this: "to save a suffering one (from perishing), i.e. one suffering from disease, to make well, heal, restore to health"

In other words, sozo can just as easily be translated heal instead of save. And in my opinion, a lot of the time, it should have been as heal instead of save. The word save has such legal baggage in the West that by translating sozo this way, it is hard for a western reader of the English Bible to see beyond Law and Wrath, and so he misses out on the invitation to health and healing that the Greek word implies.

Let me just list several verses where thankfully you can see that sozo has been translated as healed instead of saved. Just imagine what good news the NT would be offering if it were translated healed in other places too!

• And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” (Mark 5:34)
• And those who had seen it told them how the demon-possessed man had been healed. (Luke 8:36)
• If we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed ... (Acts 4:9)

Summary

I believe that it is hard for a person to make on-going progress in transformation from unhealth to health in the present without sorrow over sin. Do you?

Harrowing of Hades

Introduction

Judging merely by the degree to which a service affects me emotionally, it seems that the Vesperal Liturgy of St. Basil celebrated on the morning of Great and Holy Saturday is my favorite service. The selection of Scripture readings, hymnography and psalmody really chokes me up. Today's celebration of that liturgy was as glorious as ever, and I want to share a few impressions that I had. All Scripture quotations are from the Lexham English Bible except where indicated.

The Back Story to the Harrowing of Hades

Most people in the tradition of my upbringing have no idea what the Harrowing of Hades is. In order that the rest of my article can make sense, let me present its primary source.

At the moment of Jesus' death, this happened: "And the tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many." (Matthew 27:52-53). Among those raised from the dead were two sons of St. Simeon the God Receiver, i.e., the Simeon who received Jesus into his arms in Luke 2:28. Ananias, Caiaphas, and the Righteous Saints Joseph of Arimathaea, Gamaliel, and Nicodemus locked these two in a room and adjured them to tell them how and by whom they were raised from the dead. This is a selection from their sworn testimony:

O Lord Jesus Christ, the resurrection and the life of the world, grant us grace that we may give an account of Thy resurrection, and Thy miracles which Thou didst in Hades. We then were in Hades, with all who had fallen asleep since the beginning of the world. And at the hour of midnight there rose a light as if of the sun, and shone into these dark regions; and we were all lighted up, and saw each other. And straightway our father Abraham was united with the patriarchs and the prophets, and at the same time they were filled with joy, and said to each other: This light is from a great source of light. The prophet Hesaias, who was there present, said: This light is from the Father, and from the Son, and from the Holy Spirit; about whom I prophesied when yet alive, saying, The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, the people that sat in darkness, have seen a great light. 

Then there came into the midst another, an ascetic from the desert; and the patriarchs said to him: Who art thou? And he said: I am John, the last of the prophets, who made the paths of the Son of God straight, and proclaimed to the people repentance for the remission of sins. And the Son of God came to me; and I, seeing Him a long way off, said to the people: Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world. And with my hand I baptized Him in the river Jordan, and I saw like a dove also the Holy Spirit coming upon Him; and I heard also the voice of God, even the Father, thus saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And on this account He sent me also to you, to proclaim how the only begotten Son of God is coming here, that whosoever shall believe in Him shall be saved, and whosoever shall not believe in Him shall be condemned. On this account I say to you all, in order that when you see Him you all may adore Him, that now only is for you the time of repentance for having adored idols in the vain upper world, and for the sins you have committed, and that this is impossible at any other time. 

While John, therefore, was thus teaching those in Hades, the first created and forefather Adam heard, and said to his son Seth: My son, I wish thee to tell the forefathers of the race of men and the prophets where I sent thee, when it fell to my lot to die. And Seth said: Prophets and patriarchs, hear. When my father Adam, the first created, was about to fall once upon a time into death, he sent me to make entreaty to God very close by the gate of paradise, that He would guide me by an angel to the tree of compassion and that I might take oil and anoint my father, and that he might rise up from his sickness: which thing, therefore, I also did. And after the prayer an angel of the Lord came, and said to me: What, Seth, dost thou ask? Dost thou ask oil which raiseth up the sick, or the tree from which this oil flows, on account of the sickness of thy father? This is not to be found now. Go, therefore, and tell thy father, that after the accomplishing of five thousand five hundred years from the creation of the world, thou shall come into the earth the only begotten Son of God, being made man; and He shall anoint him with this oil, and shall raise him up; and shall wash clean, with water and with the Holy Spirit, both him and those out of him, and then shall he be healed of every disease; but now this is impossible. 

When the patriarchs and the prophets heard these words, they rejoiced greatly.
And when all were in such joy, came Satan the heir of darkness, and said to Hades: O all-devouring and insatiable, hear my words. There is of the race of the Jews one named Jesus, calling himself the Son of God; and being a man, by our working with them the Jews have crucified him: and now when he is dead, be ready that we may secure him here. For I know that he is a man, and I heard him also saying, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. He has also done me many evils when living with mortals in the upper world. For wherever he found my servants, he persecuted them; and whatever men I made crooked, blind, lame, lepers, or any such thing, by a single word he healed them; and many whom I had got ready to be buried, even these through a single word he brought to life again. 

Hades says: And is this man so powerful as to do such things by a single word? or if he be so, canst thou withstand him? It seems to me that, if he be so, no one will be able to withstand him. And if thou sayest that thou didst hear him dreading death, he said this mocking thee, and laughing, wishing to seize thee with the strong hand; and woe, woe to thee, to all eternity! 

Satan says: O all-devouring and insatiable Hades, art thou so afraid at hearing of our common enemy? I was not afraid of him, but worked in the Jews, and they crucified him, and gave him also to drink gall with vinegar. Make ready, then, in order that you may lay fast hold of him when he comes. 

Hades answered: Heir of darkness, son of destruction, devil, thou hast just now told me that many whom thou hadst made ready to be buried, be brought to life again by a single word. And if he has delivered others from the tomb, how and with what power shall he be laid hold of by us? For I not long ago swallowed down one dead, Lazarus by name; and not long after, one of the living by a single word dragged him up by force out of my bowels: and I think that it was he of whom thou speakest. If, therefore, we receive him here, I am afraid lest perchance we be in danger even about the rest. For, lo, all those that I have swallowed from eternity I perceive to be in commotion, and I am pained in my belly. And the snatching away of Lazarus beforehand seems to me to be no good sign: for not like a dead body, but like an eagle, he flew out of me; for so suddenly did the earth throw him out. Wherefore also I adjure even thee, for thy benefit and for mine, not to bring him here; for I think that he is coming here to raise all the dead. And this I tell thee: by the darkness in which we live, if thou bring him here, not one of the dead will be left behind in it to me. 

While Satan and Hades were thus speaking to each other, there was a great voice like thunder, saying: Lift up your gates, O ye rulers; and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting gates; and the King of glory shall come in. When Hades heard, he said to Satan: Go forth, if thou art able, and withstand him. Satan therefore went forth to the outside. Then Hades says to his demons: Secure well and strongly the gates of brass and the bars of iron, and attend to my bolts, and stand in order, and see to everything; for if he come in here, woe will seize us. 

The forefathers having heard this, began all to revile him, saying: O all-devouring and insatiable! open, that the King of glory may come in. David the prophet says: Dost thou not know, O blind, that I when living in the world prophesied this saying: Lift up your gates, O ye rulers? Hesaias said: I, foreseeing this by the Holy Spirit, wrote: The dead shall rise up, and those in their tombs shall be raised, and those in the earth shall rejoice. And where, O death, is thy sting? where, O Hades, is thy victory? 

There came, then, again a voice saying: Lift up the gates. Hades, hearing the voice the second time, answered as if forsooth he did not know, and says: Who is this King of glory? The angels of the Lord say: The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. And immediately with these words the brazen gates were shattered, and the iron bars broken, and all the dead who had been bound came out of the prisons, and we with the n And the King of glory came in in the form of a man, and all the dark places of Hades were lighted up. 

Immediately Hades cried out: We have been conquered: woe to us! But who art thou, that hast such power and might? and what art thou, who comest here without sin who art seen to be small and yet of great power, lowly and exalted, the slave and the master, the soldier and the king, who hast power over the dead and the living? Thou wast nailed on the cross, and placed in the tomb; and now thou art free, and hast destroyed all our power. Art thou then the Jesus about whom the chief satrap Satan told us, that through cross and death thou art to inherit the whole world? 

Then the King of glory seized the chief satrap Satan by the head, and delivered him to His angels, and said: With iron chains bind his hands and his feet, and his neck, and his mouth. Then He delivered him to Hades, and said: Take him, and keep him secure till my second appearing. 

And Hades receiving Satan, said to him: Beelzebul, heir of fire and punishment, enemy of the saints, through what necessity didst thou bring about that the King of glory should be crucified, so that he should come here and deprive us of our power? Turn and see that not one of the dead has been left in me, but all that thou hast gained through the tree of knowledge, all hast thou lost through the tree of the cross: and all thy joy has been turned into grief; and wishing to put to death the King of glory, thou hast put thyself to death. For, since I have received thee to keep thee safe, by experience shall thou learn how many evils I shall do unto thee. O arch-devil, the beginning of death, root of sin, end of all evil, what evil didst thou find in Jesus, that thou shouldst compass his destruction? how hast thou dared to do such evil? how hast thou busied thyself to bring down such a man into this darkness, through whom thou hast been deprived of all who have died from eternity? 

While Hades was thus discoursing to Satan, the King of glory stretched out His right hand, and took hold of our forefather Adam, and raised him. Then turning also to the rest, He said: Come all with me, as many as have died through the tree which he touched: for, behold, I again raise you all up through the tree of the cross. Thereupon He brought them all out, and our forefather Adam seemed to be filled with joy, and said: I thank Thy majesty, O Lord, that Thou hast brought me up out of the lowest Hades. Likewise also all the prophets and the saints said: We thank Thee, O Christ, Saviour of the world, that Thou hast brought our life up out of destruction. 

And after they had thus spoken, the Saviour blessed Adam with the sign of the cross on his forehead, and did this also to tire patriarchs, and prophets, and martyrs, and forefathers; and He took them, and sprang up out of Hades. And while He was going, the holy fathers accompanying Him sang praises, saying: Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord: Alleluia; to Him be the glory of oil the saints. 

And setting out to paradise, He took hold of our forefather Adam by the hand, and delivered him, and all the just, to the archangel Michael. And as they were going into the door of paradise, there met them two old men, to whom the holy fathers said: Who are you, who have not seen death, and have not come down into Hades, but who dwell in paradise in your bodies and your souls? One of them answered, and said: I am Enoch, who was well-pleasing to God, and who was translated hither by Him; and this is Helias the Thesbite; and we are also to live until the end of the world; and then we are to be sent by God to withstand Antichrist, and to be slain by him, and after three days to rise again, and to be snatched up in clouds to meet the Lord. 

While they were thus speaking, there came another lowly man, carrying also upon his shoulders a cross, to whom the holy fathers said: Who art thou, who hast the look of a robber; and what is the cross which thou bearest upon thy shoulders? He answered: I, as you say, was a robber and a thief in the world, and for these things the Jews laid hold of me, and delivered me to the death of the cross, along with our Lord Jesus Christ. While, then, He was hanging upon the cross, I, seeing the miracles that were done, believed in Him, and entreated Him, and said, Lord, when Thou shall be King, do not forget me. And immediately He said to me, Amen, amen: to-day, I say unto thee, shall thou be with me in paradise. Therefore I came to paradise carrying my cross; and finding the archangel Michael, I said to him, Our Lord Jesus, who has been crucified, has sent me here; bring me, therefore, to the gate of Eden. And the flaming sword, seeing the sign of the cross, opened to me, and I went in. Then the archangel says to me, Wait a little, for there cometh also the forefather of the race of men, Adam, with the just, that they too may come in. And now, seeing you, I came to meet you. 

The saints hearing these things, all cried out with a loud voice: Great is our Lord, and great is His strength. 

All these things we saw and heard; we, the two brothers, who also have been sent by Michael the archangel, and have been ordered to proclaim the resurrection of the Lord, but first to go away to the Jordan and to be baptized. Thither also we have gone, and have been baptized with the rest of the dead who have risen. Thereafter also we came to Jerusalem, and celebrated the passover of the resurrection. But now we are going away, being unable to stay here. And the love of God, even the Father, and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. 

Having written these things, and secured the rolls, they gave the half to the chief priests, and the half to Joseph and Nicodemus. And they immediately disappeared: to the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. (http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/gospelnicodemus-roberts2.html)

This is the background to everything else I write in this article. 

The Crossing of the Red Sea

In the liturgy this morning, there are fifteen extensive Old Testament readings, one of which is Exodus 13:20 - 15:19. This passage lays out the story of the crossing of the Red Sea by the children of Israel and includes the First Song of Moses, which because of its liturgical importance is also known as the First Biblical Ode. As I listened to the public reading of this passage today, my mind and emotions were awhirl as I noticed something new: Yahweh lured the Egyptians into following the Israelites into the Red Sea so that he could destroy them. It is real explicit here in 14:4:

I will harden the heart of Pharaoh, and he will chase after them, and I will be glorified through Pharaoh and through all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am Yahweh.

And then the way it is execute is so glorious that I want to quote in full 14:22-31:

And the ⌊Israelites⌋ entered the middle of the sea on the dry land. The waters were a wall for them on their right and on their left. And the Egyptians gave chase and entered after them—all the horses of Pharaoh, his chariots, and his charioteers—into the middle of the sea. And during the morning watch, Yahweh looked down to the Egyptian camp from in the column of fire and cloud, and he threw the Egyptian camp into a panic. And he removed the wheels of their chariots so that they drove them with difficulty, and the Egyptians said, “We must flee aways from Israel because Yahweh is fighting for them against Egypt.” 

And Yahweh said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, and let the waters return over the Egyptians, over their chariots, and over their charioteers.” And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned ⌊at daybreak⌋ to its normal level, and the Egyptians were fleeing ⌊because of it⌋, and Yahweh swept the Egyptians into the middle of the sea. And the waters returned and covered the chariots and the charioteers—all the army of Pharaoh coming after them into the sea. Not ⌊even⌋ one survived among them. But the ⌊Israelites⌋ walked on the dry land in the middle of the sea. The waters were a wall for them on their right and on their left. And Yahweh saved Israel on that day from the hand of Egypt, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the shore of the sea. And Israel saw the great hand that Yahweh displayed against Egypt, and the people feared Yahweh, and they believed in Yahweh and in Moses his servant.

One reason this passage was moving is that I saw so clearly how it foreshadowed Christ's Harrowing of Hades: Jesus lured Hades into welcoming him into his realm so that He could then trash it. St. Gregory of Nyssa captured what took place vividly with this metaphor:

For since, as has been said before, it was not in the nature of the opposing power to come in contact with the undiluted presence of God, and to undergo His unclouded manifestation, therefore, in order to secure that the ransom in our behalf might be easily accepted by him who required it, the Deity was hidden under the veil of our nature, that so, as with ravenous fish, the hook of the Deity might be gulped down along with the bait of flesh, and thus, life being introduced into the house of death, and light shining in darkness, that which is diametrically opposed to light and life might vanish; for it is not in the nature of darkness to remain when light is present, or of death to exist when life is active. (The Great Catechism, chapter 24,  emphasis my own)

And then in Exodus 14:30 where it says "Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the shore of the sea", I immediately thought of that glorious icon of Christ's Harrowing of Hades where we can see the locks and keys and chains that formerly bound the inmates of Hades. We are free of the tyranny of death and we can see its devastation just as the Israelites saw their former captors floating in the Red Sea:

The Judgment of the Corrupt Members of the Divine Council

I recently read an excellent book called The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible by Dr. Michael S. Heiser. It has opened the interpretation of the Bible for me by explaining its ancient Near East context. Well, having just read the book, when we sang Psalm 82 today, I actually understood for the first time what we were singing about AND it dawned on me that it was absolutely dead on the best psalm to sing at the moment we celebrate Christ's Harrowing of Hades:

God (elohim) stands in the divine assembly;
he administers judgment in the midst of the gods (elohim).
“How long will you judge unjustly
and ⌊show favoritism to the wicked⌋? Selah
Judge on behalf of the helpless and the orphan;
provide justice to the afflicted and the poor.
Rescue the helpless and the needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”
They do not know or consider.
They go about in the darkness,
so that all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
I have said, “You are gods (elohim),
and sons of the Most High, all of you.
However, you will die like men,
and you will fall like one of the princes.”
Rise up, O God, judge the earth,
because you shall inherit all the nations.

In order to see the evidence for this interpretation of the Psalm, you will have to read The Unseen Realm or read the articles here or watch the videos here, but briefly this is what is going on:

• At the tower of Babel, "Yahweh confused the language of the whole earth, and there Yahweh scattered them over the face of the whole earth." (Genesis 10:9)
• At this point, he disinherited all the nations of the world, assigned their direct governance lesser elohim, i.e., to members of his Divine Council, and chose a not yet existing people group--Israel--to be the nation that He himself governed:

When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance,
when he divided the sons of men,
he fixed their bounds according to the number of the sons of God;
but Yahweh's portion was his people,
Jacob his share of inheritance. (Deuteronomy 32:8-9, Jerusalem Bible) 

⌊And do this so that you do not lift⌋ your eyes toward heaven and ⌊observe⌋ the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of the heaven, and be led astray and bow down to them and serve them, things that Yahweh your God has allotted to all of the peoples under all of the heaven. But Yahweh has taken you and brought you out from the furnace of iron, from Egypt, to be a people of inheritance to him, ⌊as it is this day⌋. (Deuteronomy 4:19-20) 

• Some of the lesser elohim became corrupt and lured the nations under their charge to worship themselves instead of Yahweh and then to tempt Israel to do the same. 

They sacrificed to the demons, not God,
to gods whom they had not known,
new gods who came from recent times;
⌊their ancestors had not known them⌋. (Deuteronomy 32:17)

• And then Psalm 82 is where Yahweh passes His judgment upon the corrupt lesser elohim for their corrupt governance of the nations of the world and strips them of their immortality: "You will die like men". He also expropriates the nations and claims them to be his portion just as Israel had been: "Rise up, O God, judge the earth, because you shall inherit all the nations."

Now, this is the Psalm we are singing in the liturgy while re-enacting Christ's Harrowing of Hades, and it made so much sense. Jesus enters Hades, a bastion of corrupt elohim power, trashes the place, and inaugurates the judgment of Psalm 82. This Psalm is an amazing prayer of spiritual warfare. Every time we pray it, we are reminding the powers of darkness of the final consummation of their judgment.

Conclusion

Vesperal Liturgy of St. Basil celebrated on the morning of Great and Holy Saturday is just an amazing service. I cry through most of it year after year. The back story is epic, the Old Testament foreshadowing is awe-inspiring, and the realization of how what happened applies to our current spiritual warfare is breathtaking. And then, of course, there is the human fact that because of this event, some day I will be able to see Dad and Matt again.