What does St. Basil the Great say about tradition?

• a. This saint refers to many quotations from the writings of the Fathers as witnesses of the orthodox faith.

• b. He also speaks of oral tradition as safeguarding the sound interpretation of the Holy Bible, which the heretics try to destroy. He says, “in truth, it is the faith that is the object of their war, and their intention, shared by all who oppose and hate sound teaching (1 Tim. 1:10) is to throw down the foundation of faith in Christ by dashing apostolic tradition to the ground and to obliterate it. On account of this, like true debtors they cry out for proofs from the Scriptures and dismiss the non-scriptural witness of the fathers as worthless.”²⁴⁵

• c. St. Basil refers to tradition as our guide in sacraments and rites, saying: “Of the dogmas and proclamations that are guarded in the Church, we hold some from the teaching of the Scriptures, and others we have received in mystery [1 Cor. 2:7] as the teachings of the tradition of the apostles. Both hold the same power with respect to true religion.

“No one would deny these points, at least no one who has even a little experience of ecclesiastical institutions. For if we attempt to reject non-scriptural customs as insignificant, we would, unaware, lose the very vital parts of the Gospel, and even more, we would establish the proclamation merely in name.

“For instance — I will take the first and most common — who has learned through the Scriptures that those who hope in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ are marked

243 St. Cyprian of Carthage, On the Unity of the Church 6 (ANF 5:423); Letter 73.7 (ANF 5:388).

244 St. Gregory of Nyssa, Against Eunomius 4.6 (NPNF II/5:163; PG 45:653).

245 St. Basil of Caesarea, On the Holy Spirit , trans., Stephen Hildebrand (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2011), 10.25: p. 56.

with the sign of the cross? What sort of scriptural text teaches us to turn to the East for prayer?

“Which saint has left us a scriptural account of the words of the epiclesis at the manifestation of the bread of the Eucharist and the cup of blessing? We are not satisfied with the [Eucharistic] words that the Apostle or the Gospel mentions, but we add other words before and after theirs, since we have received non-scriptural teaching that these words have great power in regard to the mystery.

“We bless the water of baptism and the oil of chrism in addition to the very one who is to be baptized. By what Scriptures? Is it not by the secret and mystical tradition? But why? What scriptural authority teaches the anointing itself of oil?²⁴⁶ Where does a man being immersed three times come from?²⁴⁷ How much of the baptismal ritual is for the renunciation of Satan and his angels, and what scriptural text does it come from? Does it not come from this secret and unspoken teaching, which our fathers guarded with a simple and unprying silence, since they were well taught that the solemnity of the mysteries is preserved by silence? …

“Because of this we all look to the East for prayers, but few of us know that our ancient fatherland [Heb. 11:14], the paradise that God planted in Eden, was in the East [Gen. 3:8]. We say our prayers standing on the first day of the week, but not all know the reason why. By standing for prayer we remind ourselves of the grace given to us on the day of the resurrection, as if we are rising to stand with Christ and being bound to seek what is above (see Col. 3:1). Not only this, it also seems somehow to be an image of the age to come.”²⁴⁸