First, they are opposed to the written Word of God.
First, they are opposed to the written Word of God.
§ 395. Now that these things have been said in advance concerning the state of the question, we draw the following conclusions against the Papist traditions. The traditions that the Papists want us to accept with equal affection of piety with the written Word of God: (1) Are opposed to the written Word of God, and this for two reasons: First, because they are opposed to the perfection of Scripture that we have been proving up to now. After all, if Scripture is perfect and contains everything necessary for faith and behavior, why would there be a need for the supplement of traditions? Second, because they conflict with the express prohibition of Christ and the apostles in Matt. 5:21-22: “You have heard that it was said to those of old: ‘You shall not kill and whoever kills shall be liable to the judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be liable to the judgment.” Matt. 5:27-28: “You have heard that it was said to those of old: ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Cf. Matt. 5:31-34, 38-39, 43-44, in which Christ sets the express words of the Law against all the corruptions of the Mosaic Law that the Pharisees were peddling under the name of “ancient traditions.” Thus He calls us back from traditions to Scripture. In Matt. 15:6, He reproves the Pharisees because, for the sake of their traditions, they made void the commandment of God about honoring parents. He sets against them the prophetic oracle of Isa. 29:13: “They worship Me in vain, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.” (Irenaeus, bk. 4, c. 26, p. 251, comments as follows on this passage: “Christ does not mean the Law given through Moses when He says ‘the precepts of men’ but the traditions of the elders themselves, traditions they had fabricated and with which they were corrupting the Law of God as they defended them.”) Gal. 1:8: “But even if we or an angel from heaven were to preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we preached to you, let him be anathema.” Col. 2:8: “See to it that no one deceives you by philosophy and empty fallacy according to human tradition.”
Bellarmine makes the exception: “Christ and the apostles are not rebuking the traditions that the Jews received from Moses and the prophets, one of which was about the canonical books themselves—which were genuine and which were not. Rather, they are censuring the traditions that they had received from some of their forefathers, some of which traditions were empty, others of which were destructive and contrary to Scripture. Neither Christ nor the apostles ever call these ‘the traditions of Moses and of the prophets,’ and they say clearly that they are speaking about those traditions that conflict with the Scriptures.” We respond. (1) They are begging the question by saying that the Israelite church received traditions about faith and behavior outside of Scripture from Moses and the prophets. Let the Papists bring out traditions of this sort that came from Moses and the prophets but that are not contained in the writings of Moses and the prophets. In fact, the Jews were boasting about the traditions they had received from Moses and the prophets through the hands of their own ancestors and through the Cabala. The Scripture of the New Testament, however, nowhere sends us back to such traditions.
(2) Christ condemns unwritten traditions in general when He calls us back to Scripture alone (Luke 16:29; 24:27; John 5:39, 46; etc.) and perpetually sets God’s command against the teachings and commandments of men. Therefore He certainly rejects all traditions outside of Scripture.
(3) In fact, He also repudiates with clear words those traditions that the Pharisees were peddling under the guise of antiquity (Matt. 5:21ff.) and that the Pharisees called “traditions of the elders” (Matt. 15:2). Therefore those were not recent but old. Because Christ sets Isaiah against them, therefore He was speaking about traditions with which the Church was familiar already at the time of Isaiah.
(4) Christ everywhere accuses the Pharisees and scribes of corrupting the teaching of the Law and the promises of the Messiah with their foreign glosses. Are we to think, then, that they wanted to abstain from the corrupting influence of traditions even if they had received some from Moses and the prophets? If the genuine sense of prophetic Scripture had been preserved by traditions, where would Christ have directed His case against them regarding their corruptions of heavenly teaching as it had been set forth in prophetic Scripture?
(5) Those traditions that Christ censures in the case of the Pharisees were not at all in and of themselves wicked and diametrically opposed to Scripture. Thus frequent washings were not in and of themselves wicked nor directly opposed to Scripture. Instead, Christ censures them because they were added to Scripture as a necessary part of divine worship. We pronounce the same thing about the traditions of the Papists.