Which came first: the Bible or the Church?
It sounds like a simple question, but the answer depends on what we mean by “the Bible.” The Scriptures of the Old Testament existed before the Church’s birth at Pentecost. The books of the New Testament, however, were written within the life of the Church, addressed to its communities, and received and preserved by them.
When I was first exploring Orthodoxy, one of my concerns was whether becoming Orthodox would mean loving Scripture less. What I discovered was an invitation to enter more deeply into Scripture—to hear it in worship, encounter it in the Fathers, and learn to live it.
Scripture, Tradition, and the Fathers belong together. They direct us toward the same Lord, Jesus Christ. Here are five points that help explain how.
1. The apostolic faith was a shared life before it was a completed book
“And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.”
—Acts 2:42, KJV
St. Ignatius of Antioch writes:
“Wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church.”
—Epistle to the Smyrnaeans, chapter 8
Here “Catholic” means the whole or universal Church.
The first Christians did not begin with a completed New Testament. They began with the proclamation of Christ’s death and Resurrection, baptism, the Eucharist, prayer, and a common life shaped by the apostles’ teaching.
They also had Scripture: the sacred writings of Israel, now understood in the light of Christ. The apostles taught them how the promises, commandments, histories, and prophecies bore witness to Him.
As the Church spread, the apostles and their companions wrote letters and accounts of Christ’s life. Communities received these writings, read them aloud, copied them, and shared them with other churches. All this happened amid missionary work, persecution, disputes, and the ordinary demands of caring for one another.
Acts describes people who worshiped together and shared their possessions so that others would not go without. Their faith had content, and that content formed a way of life.
We need both. We need to know what the apostles taught, and we need to become the kind of community their teaching creates.
2. Holy Tradition is the faithful handing on of life in the Holy Spirit
“Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.”
—2 Thessalonians 2:15, KJV
The Didache, an early Christian document preserving the apostles’ teaching, instructs believers:
“Every Lord’s day gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanksgiving.”
—Didache, chapter 14
When Orthodox Christians speak of Holy Tradition, we mean the apostolic faith handed on within the continuing life of the Holy Spirit in the Church. As Fr. Stephen De Young emphasizes in The Whole Counsel of God, this is a living witness to Christ.
That includes written teaching, but also worship, prayer, sacramental life, and the practices through which Christians learn to follow Him. St. Paul explicitly speaks of teaching delivered both orally and in writing.
During one of our classes, someone raised an important objection about relying on Tradition outside of Scripture: “That’s what you say, but the book says nothing about it.”
That is a fair challenge. Calling something “Tradition” does not establish its apostolic character. A priest cannot invent a practice on Tuesday and announce on Sunday that the apostles handed it down.
We should be able to point to evidence: early Christian writings, the Church’s worship, and the continuing witness of Christian communities. The Didache, for example, describes baptism, fasting, regular prayer, Eucharistic thanksgiving, and reconciliation. It helps us see how early Christians understood and practiced the faith.
Think of a family recipe. A written recipe matters, but watching someone prepare the meal teaches things the page may leave unexplained. The recipe and the practice help preserve each other. Moreover, some family recipes are passed down without ever being written! Of course, making chicken and dumplings is easier than becoming a saint—but the comparison helps.
We also need discernment. Local customs, personal preferences, and familiar habits do not all carry the authority of Holy Tradition. Christ Himself warned that human traditions can obscure God’s commandments.
Faithful Tradition keeps bringing us back to Christ and the apostolic faith. I especially recommend beginning with the Didache or a letter of St. Ignatius. These belong to the writings commonly called the Apostolic Fathers—early Christian writers from the generations immediately following the apostles. They help us see the continuity between the New Testament and the Christian communities that followed.
3. Scripture has a unique and indispensable place within Tradition
“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.”
—2 Timothy 3:16–17, KJV
St. Clement of Rome writes:
“Look carefully into the Scriptures, which are the true utterances of the Holy Spirit.”
—First Epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 45
Recognizing Scripture’s place within Tradition should deepen our reverence for it. Scripture is inspired, authoritative, and indispensable to the Church’s life.
The early Fathers demonstrate this reverence. St. Clement directs his readers to Scripture and, elsewhere in the same letter, tells them to take up St. Paul’s epistle to their community. Apostolic writings were already exercising authority before there was a universally received list of New Testament books.
We call the collection of books received as Holy Scripture the canon.
As Fr. Stephen De Young explains, the New Testament canon developed through the Church’s reception of these writings. Communities received texts associated with the apostles and their companions, shared them, and recognized in them the faith they had been taught. Discussion and discernment accompanied that process, particularly where a book was less widely known or its reception was disputed.
St. Athanasius’s Easter letter of AD 367 contains the earliest surviving list matching our twenty-seven-book New Testament exactly. By the end of the fourth century, that collection had widespread acceptance, although the reception of certain books—especially Revelation in parts of the East—continued longer. There is no single date by which every Christian community had settled every question.
Despite what we may encounter online or in The Da Vinci Code, the canon was not an invention of St. Constantine or the product of a single meeting.
The Old Testament has its own history of reception. Two questions belong here: Which books were received as Scripture? And what wording of those books has been preserved?
On the first question, De Young contrasts Palestinian, Alexandrian, and Ethiopian Jewish traditions. These communities did not all receive precisely the same collection of sacred books, and early Christian communities inherited Scriptures from those different settings. This helps explain why the Orthodox Old Testament includes books such as Wisdom, Sirach, Tobit, and Judith that are absent from most Protestant Old Testaments.
“Jerusalem canon” and “Alexandrian canon” can serve as shorthand when explaining the smaller collection familiar to Protestants and the broader collection familiar to Orthodox Christians. We should remember, however, that ancient Jewish practice was more varied than two completely fixed lists would suggest.
Alongside these differences in the collections of books, there are differences in the textual traditions: the wording preserved and handed down through copying and translation.
The Masoretic tradition preserves the Hebrew text, together with markings and notes that guide its reading. The Septuagint is a collection of ancient Greek translations and writings; some of its translations reflect different ancient Hebrew readings. The Hebrew tradition behind the Masoretic text is much older than its surviving medieval manuscripts.
The Septuagint has a central place in Orthodox worship and interpretation, but the Hebrew text also helps us study and understand Scripture. In that sense, our approach is “both-and” rather than “either-or.”
The most important thing is to study the Scriptures we have received. Knowing how the Bible came to us is valuable. Opening it and allowing it to shape our lives is essential.
4. We read Scripture for its immediate meaning, its moral teaching, and its witness to Christ
“And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.”
—Luke 24:27, KJV
The early Epistle of Barnabas offers an example of this reading:
“Let us further inquire whether the Lord took any care to foreshadow the water and the cross.”
—Epistle of Barnabas, chapter 11
For our purposes, three levels of interpretation provide a useful starting point. They work together, and they do not exhaust everything the Fathers have to teach us about reading Scripture.
The immediate meaning asks what the passage says in its literary and historical setting. Who is speaking? To whom? What kind of writing is this? What comes before and after it? Poetry, history, parable, and prophecy require attentive reading. A verse lifted out of its setting can easily become an answer to a question its author never addressed.
The moral meaning asks how the passage calls us to live. What does it reveal about repentance, courage, mercy, faithfulness, or love? What needs to change in us? We can become very skilled at explaining a passage while avoiding its demands. Scripture calls for obedience as well as understanding.
The symbolic or typological meaning asks how the passage participates in the larger story fulfilled in Christ. Typology recognizes people and events that foreshadow or help us understand that fulfillment. The Exodus, for example, is an account of Israel’s deliverance and a pattern through which Christians understand deliverance from sin and death.
St. Paul writes:
“And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea.”
—1 Corinthians 10:2, KJV
And:
“And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.”
—1 Corinthians 10:4, KJV
This kind of reading has roots in Scripture itself. It requires discipline: a symbolic interpretation should be guided by the biblical witness, the Church’s worship, and the Fathers, rather than whatever association happens to occur to us. When an interpretation is new to us, we should test it against the wider witness of Scripture and the Church’s received teaching.
Fr. Stephen De Young also reminds us that the Fathers read Scripture within lives of prayer and worship. Their example invites us to read whole passages, follow biblical connections, and bring what we learn into the life of the Church. These levels of interpretation reinforce one another as Scripture teaches us to know Christ and follow Him.
5. Receiving the faith means becoming faithful Christians
“A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”
—John 13:34–35, KJV
St. Ignatius of Antioch writes:
“For the beginning is faith, and the end is love.”
—Epistle to the Ephesians, chapter 14
We can become so busy being Orthodox that we forget to be Christian.
We may know which translation we prefer, explain the history of the canon, and quote the Fathers—and still speak cruelly to someone who disagrees with us. Our knowledge needs to bear fruit.
Scripture and Tradition teach us to worship God, repent, forgive, care for people in need, and grow in love. The Fathers and Mothers of the Church matter because their teaching and lives help us learn that faithfulness. Reading them should draw us toward the Lord they followed.
A good beginning is simple: begin with a Gospel, read a short passage each day, and bring your questions to class or to your priest. Participate attentively in worship, and spend time with an early Christian text such as the Didache, Clement, or Ignatius. Let your questions lead to deeper understanding and more faithful practice.
Then attend to the people God has placed before you. Pray for them. Listen to them. Offer help. Seek reconciliation.
The apostolic faith has been handed on to us so that we may live it—and, through that life, help others encounter Jesus Christ.
[For a better presentation, I strongly recommend Fr. Stephen De Young’s The Whole Counsel of God: An Introduction to Your Bible from Ancient Faith Publishing.]