[Iscool]

(Therefore stand fast and hold the traditions you were taught, by word or by our epistle.2 Thess. 3:6)

So some churches were taught the tradition by word where other churches were taught the tradition by the written epistles...Ought to be clear that the tradition taught was the same whether spoken or written...They certainly couldn't be teaching different things to the various churches...

It appears your Church reads that verse by changing the position of the comma:

(Therefore stand fast and hold the traditions you were taught, by word or by our epistle.2 Thess. 3:6) From here

(Therefore stand fast and hold the traditions you were taught by word, or by our epistle.2 Thess. 3:6) To here

traditions you were taught, by word or by our epistle.

traditions you were taught by word, or by our epistle

First one shows that the tradition of the church is the same whether oral or written...

Moving the comma could separate tradition to being spoken as compared to scripture (but is not tradition) which is written...

[Mrs. Don-o]

"So some churches were taught the tradition by word where other churches were taught the tradition by the written epistles...Ought to be clear that the tradition taught was the same whether spoken or written...They certainly couldn't be teaching different things to the various churches..."

That's true!

And a tip o' the hat to you. Did you expect anybody to disagree with you on that?

I'd only change the word "different" to "contradictory."

There can be "different" things even in the written Gospels (e.g. there are teachings and incidents in John that are not in the Synoptics; there are different wordings for even for the Lord's Prayer in Matthew and Luke; the whole chronology of His ministry varies in the various Gospels) -- but what you don't find is flat-out contradiction on the core "deposit of faith" on doctrine and morals.

The same is true is comparing Apostolic Tradition as it was received, preserved, taught and observed in the various Apostolic Sees, i.e. the churches historically founded by Apostles. The ones that come readily to mind:

• Jerusalem: St. James
• Rome: Sts Peter and Paul
• Antioch: St. Peter
• Alexandria: St. Mark
• Byzantium St. Andrew

If you visualize their Apostolic Traditions as being drawn on clear plastic sheets and then laid atop one another, they don't map on each other point-for-point, but all together they give the same coherent picture, not conradicting one another and not, of course, contradicting the written Tradition (the written NT).

The way I would say it, is that the written Tradition (the 27 books of the NT) and the oral Tradition (the practices, teachings, and beliefs of the Apostolic Churches) are not "identical", but they are ONE: they make up one coherent whole, without internal contradiction. They add up to the same picture. This is because they were handed down by the same people: the Apostles and the church leaders of the Apostolic Era (including second and third generation, like Titus and Timothy and many, many others).

[Mrs. Don-o]

My tagline, as well as my NAB (New American Bible) has the comma after "taught" --- which I think is the same as your Bible. BibleHub has several after "word," several after "taught," and several with no comma at all. KJV has two commas, one after "taught" and one after "word." The original (in Koine Greek) has no commas, of course.

So this is a distinction without a difference. I don't think the comma, wherever its placed, points to any difference --- far less, any contradiciton--- between the written or the oral transmission of the Apostles' teachings.

BTW it's 2 Thess 2:15. I had the wrong verse of Thess.