Mary, the Apostles, and many other disciples on the first Christian Pentecost (Acts 2:1 - 4) - artist unknown
Origins of the Apostolic Tradition
In the days between Jesus’ Ascension and the first Christian Pentecost (Acts 1:1-14), we can imagine that the disciples gathered in the Upper Room, sharing stories with one another about their personal experiences with Jesus. This was probably the first time that Peter, James, and John told anyone about the Transfiguration (Mark 9:2-9). Perhaps it was the first time Mary shared the circumstances of her pregnancy (Luke 1:26-38). As the disciples sang the psalms, they surely made new connections between these age-old songs and the life of Jesus!
In other words, the ApostolicTradition – the teachings of Jesus and the details of his life, death, and resurrection passed down to us by the apostles and other early disciples – began to take form within weeks of Jesus’ resurrection, circa 30 AD. The Apostolic Tradition includes events after Pentecost (such as the martyrdom of Stephen and the Assumption of Mary), and it continued to evolve as the apostles and early disciples traveled, taught, and experienced the working of the Holy Spirit over the next several decades.
The Composition of
the New Testament
The Baptism of the Eunuch - Rembrandt van Rijn
Our best guess is that the books of the New Testament were written after the initial formation of the Apostolic Tradition, between 50 and 120 AD. Since none of the books of the New Testament were written as a comprehensive treatise of the entirety of the Apostolic Tradition, the New Testament omits parts of the Apostolic Tradition. The prime example of an omitted teaching would be the nature of the Trinity. There are many references to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, but there is no comprehensive explanation of how the persons of the Triune God relate to one another.
The Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches have long recognized that while the Apostolic Tradition and the New Testament are closely related, there is not a perfect synchronicity. Some Christian traditions originating in the past 500+ years do not recognize this dichotomy. Some have argued for sola scriptura, claiming that the Bible is the complete record of the Apostolic Tradition. Others have argued that certain teachings were deliberately omitted from the New Testament in order to skew the Apostolic Tradition for political purposes.
Manuscripts Not Included in the New Testament Canon
Archaeologists continue to discover copies of ancient Christian religious manuscripts that are not included in the New Testament. Often, these are announced with great fanfare, but without adequate explanation about their religious relevance. Usually, biblical scholars know about these works from earlier discoveries, or by known references to them by theologians of the early centuries of Christianity, including Saint Irenaeus (c. 130 – c. 202), Tertullian (c. 155 – c. 220), and Origen
(c. 184 – c. 253).
At the heart of debates about these documents lies an argument about the date of authorship. Those who claim that these manuscripts were deliberately excluded from the canon for nefarious purposes will argue that they were written in the first century AD; others will assert later authorship to downplay such claims.
The Good Shepherd - mosaic in Catacomb of Callixtus
Of all the early Christian works not included in the New Testament canon, The Shepherd of Hermas (sometimes simply called The Shepherd) probably came the closest to being included. It may have been written in the late first century or early second century. Some of the early Church leaders – including Saint Irenaeus – proposed that it be included in the canon, and it was commonly read by Christians in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th centuries.
The work consists of five visions revealed to a slave named Hermas who is encouraged to repent of all his sins. The final vision concerns a shepherd who gives Hermas twelve mandates – ethical precepts – to share with other Christians. These mandates concern such topics as the humility of those who claim to be prophets and the forgiveness of unfaithful spouses. The twelve mandates are followed by ten parables whose allegorical meanings are explained to Hermas by an angel. The ninth parable takes up the theme in the third vision of a tower that represents the Church. In both the vision and the parable, the tower is composed of stones that each represent an individual Christian. While the vision seems to imply that only the unwavering faithful remain part of the tower/Church, the parable promises that all the baptized can be forgiven their sins if they repent.
The Shepherd of Hermas was popular with many Christians in the early centuries. Clement of Alexandria (c. 150 – 215 AD), Tertullian, and Origen all treat it as inspired scripture, but they also note that many Christians do not recognize it as inspired. While it continued to be copied frequently into the Middle Ages by Catholics, it was cited by fewer and fewer theologians in the passing centuries. This is probably due to the Church’s articulation of three heresies presented in passages of The Shepherd of Hermas:
Montanism – late 2nd century, arguing that ecstatic prophetic revelations to individual Christians should be included in the universal deposit of faith
Docetism – late 2nd century, denying Jesus’ humanity
Donatism – 4th and 5th centuries, requiring absolute sinlessness of Christian clergy
Devotional Stories to Address “Loose Ends”
Because the New Testament is not a comprehensive summary of the Apostolic Tradition, it does not satisfactorily answer numerous questions that Christians have asked.
For example, none of the New Testament books were written for the purpose of detailing the life of Mary, so there is no explicit mention of the Immaculate Conception or the Assumption. Also, very few details about Jesus’ childhood are included, leading to questions about Joseph’s ability to provide for his family and about references to Jesus’ “brothers and sisters” (Matthew 13, Mark 3 and 6), including a man referred to multiple times as “James, the brother of the Lord” (Acts 15, 1 Corinthians 15, Galatians 1-2).
Saint Joseph with the Infant Jesus - Guido Reni
Various documents were written in the early centuries of Christianity to answer these omissions and incongruities. While the documents often include details from the Apostolic Tradition omitted from the New Testament, they also include stories that are not part of the Apostolic Tradition. For example, some of these tell that when Mary was betrothed, Joseph was a wealthy old man who had been previously married for 49 years to a woman named Melcha. Together, Joseph and Melcha had two daughters and four sons, the youngest of whom was named James. Because these works include fictional elements that contradict the Apostolic Tradition, the Church does not consider them to be the inspired Word of God.
The best-known of these works is the Protoevangelium of James, a 2nd-century story about the life of Mary. According to the Protoevangelium, Mary’s special role in salvation was immediately apparent to her parents, so they sent her to live in the Temple at the age of three. When Mary was twelve, all the widowers of Judea vied to be her guardian. After Joseph was handed a staff at the temple, a dove flew out, confirming that Joseph was to be Mary’s guardian. The Protoevangelium also includes a number of details that are consonant with the Apostolic Tradition, including the Immaculate Conception and the Annunciation.
Presentation of the Virgin - Titian
While the Church does not recognize the Protoevangeliumof James as part of the Apostolic Tradition, its influence remains. It provides the names of Mary’s parents as Joachim and Anne; it is the reason why some Christians claim that Mary was born in a house close to the Jerusalem temple even though we are confident that she was raised in Nazareth; it is one of the documents that inspires depictions of Joseph being several decades older than Mary. Most curiously, it inspires the Feast of the Presentation of Mary on November 21, celebrating that Mary was indeed presented at the Temple at the age of three. While this celebration is considered relatively significant in Eastern Orthodox traditions, it has been added and removed from the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar multiple times over the centuries. In 1974, Pope Paul VI explained the rationale for continuing to include certain Marian feasts on the calendar: "apart from their apocryphal content,” they “carry on venerable traditions” (Marialis Cultis #8).
Gnosticism and the “Gnostic Gospels”
The Stag Hunt - mosaic in Pella, Greece
Gnosticism was a movement that pre-dates Christianity, but it was still prevalent in the early centuries of Christianity. There were scores of gnostic schools of thought over several centuries, but all of them held that there is gnosis, or secret knowledge, necessary for salvation. People influenced by these schools wrote dozens of documents in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd centuries related to the life of Jesus and to early Christian teachings.
Because gnosticism was a decentralized movement, not all schools within it held the same beliefs; however, most held these teachings that contradict the Apostolic Tradition:
Jesus intended many of his teachings to be held in secret, passed along only to a select few.
The god that Jesus refers to as “Father” is a benevolent, all-powerful god, completely distinct from the Jewish god of the Old Testament. The Old Testament being is a malevolent demi-god, not as powerful as the Father. (This is a main thrust of a heresy known as Marcionism.)
Jesus was not truly human, but merely appeared to be. (This is the heresy of Docetism, mentioned above regarding TheShepherd of Hermas.)
All matter is evil. The goal of life is to be released from the body as quickly as possible, so that an individual’s “light” can be released. Many gnostics promoted extreme forms of asceticism which could shorten a believer’s lifespan.
Two Resources for Better Understanding Gnosticism
For those who would like to learn more about gnosticism, we recommend two resources.
The Gospel of Thomas. This gospel uses many of the same quotations of Jesus as the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke, but it presents some of them in a very different context than that in the Apostolic Tradition. For example, consider the parable of the merchant who sells everything to purchase a fine pearl. In Matthew 13:45-46, we usually interpret this as God (the merchant) sacrificing all for any one of us (the pearl). In the context of Thomas 76, the same parable seems to promote the idea of a believer (the merchant) learning the secret ways of God and keeping such knowledge (the pearl) for herself or himself. Consider also the parable of the lost sheep. In Luke 15:1-7, this is a tale of God’s love and forgiveness for sinners. In Thomas 107, it seems to promote God’s love as being exclusively for those who possess the secret knowledge. We recommend that readers evaluate The Gospel of Thomas on its own merits before reading explanations from others about its origins and ideas. In Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas (2003), for example, Elaine Pagels claims that the Gospel of Thomas was written in the first century, and that the Gospel of John was written later to discredit it. According to Pagels, a conspiracy led by Irenaeus in the late second century promoted the teachings of Peter and John over Thomas and Mary Magdalene.
Jesus as a Figure in History: How Modern Historians View the Man from Galilee by Mark Allan Powell (2nd edition, 2013). What about Jesus is historically accurate? What is myth? Powell surveys some of the most prominent scholars of the so-called “Third Quest for the Historical Jesus,” a movement that began in the 1980s and continues today. Powell looks at the research and conclusions of scholars as radical as the Jesus Seminar and John Dominic Crossan (who claim that Jesus of Nazareth was very different from the gospels’ portrayal) and as traditional as John P. Meier and N. T. Wright (who support a vision of Jesus consonant with the Apostolic Tradition). This book will likely invite the reader to re-examine her or his beliefs about Jesus, too! Of special interest regarding gnosticism is Crossan’s claim that there is a hypothetical “Cross Gospel,” an early document that represents authentic Christian belief contrary to the Apostolic Tradition. The existence of this document and its early composition date – which Crossan claims is the source of the later gnostic Gospel of Peter – is central to Crossan’s entire hypothesis.