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TRADITION IN ANCIENT CHURCH 4 / 9

The "Regula Fidei

In the Church Primitive tradition was first and foremost a principle and a method of interpretation. One could weigh and understand Scripture in a full and correct in the light and context of the apostolic tradition alive, which was a factor to a full Christian life. So it was not that the tradition could add anything whatsoever to what had been revealed in Scripture, but because this tradition provided the living context, the integral perspective, in which only the true "intent" and global project of Holy Scripture, Divine Revelation itself, is left perceive and understand.

The truth was, St. Irenaeus, "a system with a solid foundation," a corpus [22] , "a melodious harmony [23] " . However, this very harmony required to be seized, the vision of faith . In fact, the tradition was not limited to the transmission of doctrines inherited, in a "Jewish", but she was still living in truth [24]. It represented, not a fixed core or complex binding proposals, but deep vision of the meaning and consequences of events of the revelation of the manifestation of God who acts ". And this point was decisive in the field of biblical exegesis. GL Prestige put it well: "Voice of the Bible could be clearly heard if the text was interpreted in a manner comprehensive and sensible , in agreement with the apostolic creed and data from the historical reality of Christianity. Were heretics who relied on isolated texts, and Catholics who were more attentive, ultimately, to the principles of Scripture [25] .

Summarizing his careful analysis of the use of Tradition in the early Church, the Flesseman Dr. Ellen-van-Leer wrote: "Scripture without interpretation n is in no way Scripture is always interpreted Scripture as it is implemented and it becomes alive. " However, Scripture must be interpreted "according to its own base project " which makes known the regula fidei . Thus, this regula becomes, as it were, the touchstone of exegesis. "The true interpretation of Scripture lies in the preaching of the Church, in the tradition [26] .

[22] Veritatis corpus, Ibid., 2, 27, 1.

[23] Ibid ., 2, 38, 3

[24] Cf. Dom Odo Casel, OSB, "Benedict of Nursia as a spiritual man," Sacred Tradition , Münster 1938, p. 100-101: The sacred tradition is therefore not only been in the church from the beginning a sharing of doctrines spätjudischen after (post-Christian) nature, but a living further flowering of the divine life . Dans une note, Dom Casel renvoi le lecteur à John Adam Mölher.

[25] GL Prestige, Fathers and Heretics , London 1940, p. 43.

[26] Flesseman, op.cit., P.92-96. On Irenaeus, see ibid ., 100-144; van den Eynde, op. cit., 159-187; B. Reynders, "Paradosis, the progress of the idea of tradition to St. Irenaeus," Searches of ancient and medieval theology , 5, 1993 155-191, "The controversy of Saint Irenaeus," ibid ., 7, 1935, p. 5-27; Henri Holstein, "The Tradition of the Apostles in St. Irenaeus' religious Science Research, 36, 1949, p. 229-270; Tradition in the Church , Paris 1960, André Benoît, "Scripture and Tradition at Saint Irenaeus," Journal of history and religious philosophy , 40, 1960, 32-43; Saint Irenaeus Introduction to the study of theology , Paris 1960.