No, we don't We need the Holy Spirit to understand the Word of God.
As far as tradition goes....
Just what are those traditions Paul was referring to that he handed down that we are to keep that were not included in Scripture?
How do you know?
How do you know they’re from the apostles, Paul in particular?
How do you know they’ve been passed down faithfully?
What is your source for verifying all of the above?
Please provide the sources for verification purposes.
The Church teaches us, because it is "the pillar and foundation of truth." "If he will not listen to the church, treat him as a pagan or tax collector."
Do you doubt Jesus? Do you doubt His Church?
This is what the Church teaches about Sacred Tradition.
How do you know if the Letters of St. Paul were written by St. Paul? Were you there when he wrote them? Or do you trust the Church that preserved and canonized them? How do you know that they were faithfully re-copied? Why do you trust Luther's canon of Scripture? Was he around when the books of the Bible were written?
If you reject the Authority of the Church, you reject Scripture, because the Church wrote, preserved and canonized Scripture. If the Church is fallible, then the Bible can be errant.
R.C. Sproul recognized this dilemma, to some degree, when he called the Bible "a fallible collection of infallible books."
Who TRANSLATED every single version of the earliest Bibles?
CATHOLICS that is who! And they did so based on TRADITION.
“For Thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory” for instance is NOT in the original “Lord’s Prayer” -— it was added as a note, “gloss” on the margins of ancient manuscripts by a CATHOLIC MONK!
Yet, Protestants use this CATHOLIC inspiration all the time as part of the ORIGINAL Lord’s Prayer.
You folks can be amusing.