Tradition
Stories
THE WONDER OF WORDS: BOOK 2
ONE-HUNDRED MORE WORDS AND PHRASES SHAPING HOW CHRISTIANS THINK AND LIVE
When Bismarck was the Prussian ambassador to the court of Alexander II, in the early 1860's, he looked through a palace window and saw a sentry on duty in the middle of the vast lawn. He asked the Czar why the man was there. The Czar turned to an aide, inquired about the sentry, and found the aide did not know. The general in charge of the troops was called. When the question about the sentry's position was posed to him, he answered "I beg to inform his majesty that it is an ancient tradition." Bismarck, who was standing beside the Czar, asked, "What is the origin of this tradition?" The general admitted he didn't know. The Czar ordered, "Investigate this tradition and report the results!" They found that the sentry was posted there by an order put on the books eighty years before! One spring morning in 1780, Catherine the Great looked out on the lawn, saw the first flower thrusting above the frozen ground, and ordered a sentry to be posted to prevent anyone picking the flower. By 1860, the sentry on the lawn had become a tradition.
The word tradition comes from the Latin word "tradere," meaning to hand down. It refers to the handing down of beliefs, opinions, customs, and stories. Because a belief or custom is traditional does not guarantee it is true or right. In the Gospel according to John, for example, is an instance of an incorrect Church tradition. (21:23) In the second century, there was a group of eccentric Christians called Gnostics, who claimed to have a secret tradition different and superior to the church's ways. The ancient Church's response was to establish the Canon of Scripture, the list of documents recognized as the authoritative witness to the apostolic faith. To protect the church from erroneous unwritten traditions, St. Basil said: "It is a manifest falling from the faith ... either to reject any point of these things that are written, or to bring in any of these things that are not written [in the Bible]."
The word tradition comes from the Latin word "tradere," meaning to hand down. It refers to the handing down of beliefs, opinions, customs, and stories. Because a belief or custom is traditional does not guarantee it is true or right. In the Gospel according to John, for example, is an instance of an incorrect Church tradition. (21:23) In the second century, there was a group of eccentric Christians called Gnostics, who claimed to have a secret tradition different and superior to the church's ways. The ancient Church's response was to establish the Canon of Scripture, the list of documents recognized as the authoritative witness to the apostolic faith. To protect the church from erroneous unwritten traditions, St. Basil said: "It is a manifest falling from the faith ... either to reject any point of these things that are written, or to bring in any of these things that are not written [in the Bible]."
