Nicene and Post-Nicene Church Fathers Series 2 - The Still Small ...

66. 1268 Of the beliefs and practices whether generally accepted or publicly enjoined
which are preserved in the Church 1269 some we possess derived from written teaching;
1268 The genuineness of this latter portion of the Treatise was objected to by Erasmus on the ground that
the style is unlike that of Basil’s soberer writings. Bp. Jeremy Taylor follows Erasmus (Vol. vi. ed. 1852, p. 427).
It was vindicated by Casaubon, who recalls St. John Damascene’s quotation of the Thirty Chapters to Amphilochi-
us. Mr. C.F.H. Johnston remarks, “The later discovery of the Syriac Paraphrases of the whole book pushes back
this argument to about one hundred years from the date of St. Basil’s writing. The peculiar care taken by St.
Basil for the writing out of the treatise, and for its safe arrival in Amphilochius’ hands, and the value set upon
it by the friends of both, make the forgery of half the present book, and the substitution of it for the original
within that period, almost incredible.” Section 66 is quoted as an authoritative statement on the right use of
Tradition “as a guide to the right understanding of Holy Scripture, for the right ministration of the Sacraments,
and the preservation of sacred rights and ceremonies in the purity of their original institution,” in Philaret’s
Longer Catechism of the Eastern Church. St. Basil is, however, strong on the supremacy of Holy Scripture, as in
the passages quoted in Bp. H. Browne, On the xxxix Articles: “Believe those things which are written; the things
which are not written seek not.” (Hom. xxix. adv. Calum. S. Trin.) “It is a manifest defection from the faith,
and a proof of arrogance, either to reject anything of what is written, or to introduce anything that is not.” (De
Fide. i.) cf. also Letters CV. and CLIX. On the right use of Tradition cf. Hooker, Ecc. Pol. lxv. 2, “Lest, therefore,
the name of tradition should be offensive to any, considering how far by some it hath been and is abused, we
mean by traditions ordinances made in the prime of Christian Religion, established with that authority which
Christ hath left to His Church for matters indifferent, and in that consideration requisite to be observed, till like
authority see just and reasonable causes to alter them. So that traditions ecclesiastical are not rudely and in
gross to be shaken off, because the inventors of them were men.” cf. Tert., De Præsc. 36, 20, 21, “Constat omnem
doctrinam quæ cum illis ecclesiis apostolicis matricibus et originalibus fidei conspiret veritati deputandam, id sine
dubio tenentem quod ecclesiæ ab apostolis, apostoli a Christo, Christus a Deo accepit.” VideThomasius, Christ.
Dogm. i. 105.
Of the origin of the word “with,” and what force it has. Also concerning…
1269 “τῶς ἐν τῇ Εκκλησί& 139· πεφυλαγμένων δογμάτων καὶ κηρυγμάτων.” To give the apparent meaning
of the original seems impossible except by some such paraphrase as the above. In Scripture δόγμα, which occurs
five times (Luke ii. 1, Acts xvi. 4, xvii. 7, Eph. ii. 15, and Col. ii. 14), always has its proper sense of decree or or-
dinances. cf. Bp. Lightfoot, on Col. ii. 14, and his contention that the Greek Fathers generally have mistaken
the force of the passage in understanding δόγματα in both Col. and Eph. to mean the doctrines and precepts of
the Gospel. Κήρυγμα occurs eight times (Matt. xii. 41, Luke xi. 32, Rom. xvi. 25, 1 Cor. i. 21, ii. 4, xv. 14, 2 Tim
iv. 17, and Tit. i. 3), always in the sense of preaching or proclamation. “The later Christian sense of δόγμα,
meaning doctrine, came from its secondary classical use, where it was applied to the authoritative and categor-
ical ‘sentences’ of the philosophers: cf. Just. Mart., Apol. i. 7. οἰ ἐν ῞Ελλησι τὰ αὐτοῖς ἀρεστὰ δογματίσαντες ἐκ
παντὸς τῷ ενὶ ὀνόματι φιλοσοφίας προσαγορεύοντα, καίπερ τῶν δογμάτων ἐναντίων ὄντων.” [All the sects
in general among the Greeks are known by the common name of philosophy, though their doctrines are different.]
230
41