Apostolic Teaching and How It Was Preserved
When we talk about apostolic teaching, the first thing we need to understand is where its authority came from.
It did not come from the Church.
It did not come from a council.
It did not come from tradition.
It came from Jesus Christ.
The apostles were men Christ personally chose and commissioned. They were not simply good teachers or early church leaders. They were witnesses of what Jesus said and did. They heard His teaching, saw His works, witnessed His death, and became witnesses of His resurrection. Jesus gave them the responsibility of carrying His message to others. That is why their teaching had authority.
Acts tells us that the first Christians “continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine.”¹ That statement is simple, but it is very important. The early Church was not built around changing opinions. It was built around the teaching of those whom Christ had appointed.
Paul makes the same point when he says the Church was “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone.”² A foundation is something that is laid at the beginning. You do not keep laying the same foundation over and over again. Once it is laid, everything else is built upon it.
That helps us understand the special place of the apostles.
They were foundational.
Their authority was unique.
They received the message and passed it on.
The Church that followed was called to remain faithful to what had already been given.Sometimes the discussion about apostolic teaching becomes confused because people act as though the apostles only taught through written Scripture.
That is clearly not true.
The apostles preached.
They taught in homes.
They instructed congregations.
They trained leaders.
They answered questions.
They corrected error.
Much of their teaching was oral.
Paul makes this clear when he tells the Thessalonians to “stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle.”³
So there is no reason to deny that spoken apostolic teaching carried authority. If Paul personally taught a congregation something, that teaching had apostolic authority whether he spoke it or wrote it down.
But this is where another question has to be asked.
What happened after Paul died?
What happened after Peter died?
What happened when the last apostle was gone?
That is really the heart of the issue.
The question is not whether authoritative oral teaching existed. It certainly did.
The real question is how that teaching could be preserved accurately and identified with certainty after the apostles were no longer present to confirm it.
The Apostles Taught Both Orally and in Writing
Sometimes the discussion about apostolic teaching becomes confused because people act as though the apostles only taught through written Scripture.
That is clearly not true.
The apostles preached.
They taught in homes.
They instructed congregations.
They trained leaders.
They answered questions.
They corrected error.
Much of their teaching was oral.
Paul makes this clear when he tells the Thessalonians to “stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle.”³
So there is no reason to deny that spoken apostolic teaching carried authority. If Paul personally taught a congregation something, that teaching had apostolic authority whether he spoke it or wrote it down.
But this is where another question has to be asked.
What happened after Paul died?
What happened after Peter died?
What happened when the last apostle was gone?
That is really the heart of the issue.
The question is not whether authoritative oral teaching existed. It certainly did.
The real question is how that teaching could be preserved accurately and identified with certainty after the apostles were no longer present to confirm it.
Tradition Has to Be Tested by Its Source
The word translated “tradition” in the New Testament simply refers to something handed down.
That means tradition itself is not automatically good or bad.
Jesus condemned certain traditions because they came from men and were being used in a way that pushed aside the commands of God.⁴ Paul, on the other hand, praised believers for holding to teaching that had come from the apostles.
So the real issue is not whether something is called a tradition.
The issue is where it came from.
If it came from Christ through the apostles, it carries apostolic authority.
If it developed later, then it may still be useful. It may be wise. It may be old. It may have been practiced by Christians for many generations.
But age alone does not make something apostolic.
That is an important distinction.
We cannot simply look at a later practice, trace it backward for several centuries, and then assume it came from an apostle. The claim has to be demonstrated.
Paul Told Timothy to Preserve What He Had Received
Second Timothy gives us one of the clearest pictures of how apostolic teaching was to continue.
Paul told Timothy:
“The things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”⁵
Notice what is happening.
Paul teaches Timothy.
Timothy teaches faithful people.
Those faithful people teach others.
There is clearly a line of transmission.
But what is being transmitted?
The teaching.
Paul does not tell Timothy that these later teachers will become new apostles. He does not tell them to create new revelation. He tells Timothy to make sure the same message is faithfully passed along.
That is the pattern.
Receive it.
Guard it.
Teach it.
Pass it on.
Paul also tells Timothy to “hold fast the pattern of sound words” and to “guard the good deposit.”⁶
Those are not the words of someone expecting the Christian faith to keep expanding into new revelation.
They are the words of someone protecting something that has already been given.
Jude says something very similar when he speaks of “the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.”⁷
The Church's responsibility, then, is not to create a new faith for every generation.
Its responsibility is to remain faithful to the faith already delivered.
Why Writing Became So Important
This is where Scripture becomes especially important.
Oral teaching works very well when the teacher is alive and present.
You can ask Paul what he meant.
You can question Peter.
You can hear the apostle explain something again.
But once the apostles were gone, that direct access disappeared.
Writing gave their teaching a lasting form.
A letter can travel where the writer cannot.
A written Gospel can be read after the original witnesses have died.
Written teaching can be copied, compared, translated, studied, and read publicly in the churches.
John explains that he wrote so that later readers could believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.⁸
Writing did not weaken apostolic authority.
It preserved it.
That is one of the most important points in this discussion.
The written apostolic Word allows Christians in every generation to hear the teaching of the foundational witnesses without having to depend on an uncertain chain of memories.
The Church Still Has an Important Role
None of this means the Church is unimportant.
The Church has a tremendous responsibility.
It must preserve the Scriptures.
It must teach them.
It must preach them.
It must translate them.
It must train faithful teachers.
It must correct false teaching.
It must pass the truth to the next generation.
Paul even calls the Church “the pillar and ground of the truth.”⁹
But a pillar supports something. It does not create what it supports.
That is the difference.
The Church serves the truth.
The Church does not become the source of truth.
Its authority is real, but it is a serving authority. Church leaders are responsible to remain faithful to the apostolic message. Their authority does not place them above that message.
The Pattern Is Clear
When we put all of this together, the New Testament gives us a clear pattern.
Christ is the source.
The apostles are the authorized witnesses.
They preach the message.
They write the message.
The Church receives it.
Faithful teachers guard it.
The next generation learns it.
Then they pass it on again.
That is how apostolic teaching continues.
The Church preserves the message, but it does not become a new source of revelation.
The apostles laid the foundation. The Church is called to build upon it faithfully.
That is why Scripture remains so important. It gives the Church a permanent, public, and testable record of the apostolic witness.
The safest place for the Church is not above Scripture, beside Scripture, or beyond Scripture.
It is under Scripture.
Christ stands above His Church.
The apostles bore witness to Christ.
And the Church must continue steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine until Christ returns.
Endnotes
Acts 2:42.
Ephesians 2:20.
2 Thessalonians 2:15.
Mark 7:8–13; see also Matthew 15:3–9.
2 Timothy 2:2.
2 Timothy 1:13–14.
Jude 3.
John 20:30–31.
1 Timothy 3:15.
