In the Bible, the apostles wrote, stick to our letters and what we said in public in from of many reliable witnesses. If you have some teaching outside of the Bible, I'll need to know the reliable witnesses and the chain of custody. Otherwise, we're talking hearsay.
And Christ said:
(John 16:13)
But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming.
So the Church herself, Christ's Bride, clinging -- as St. Paul said --- to the traditions handed on to her by the APostles, has within herself that chain of custody.
Now, this just occurred to me. I don't know quite the implications of it. Think: John was the last to write a Gospel and Epistles, near the close of the 1st century, and he impressed his listeners with how MANY of our Blessed Lord's doings and sayings had not been written down:
John 21:25He's also the one who said:
There are also many other things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be written.
2 John 1:12:Clearly he's saying his teaching is not confined to what he has written. And he repeats this --- and repeating something is a form of underlining! --- in 3 John 13-14--
Although I have much to write to you, I do not intend to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and to speak face to face so that our joy may be complete.
I have much to write to you, but I do not wish to write with pen and ink. Instead, I hope to see you soon, when we can talk face to face.
Wouldn't you want to know what he had to say?
Wouldn't your investigations be an examination of what the Church was agreed upon about these Apostolic teachings? Wouldn't you be looking for what were areas of unanimity in the earliest Christian writings, Tradition, practice, and doctrine?