Why should we pass on what we know
to the next generation?
Find out in our Truth in Two (full text and footnotes below)
Support MarkEckel.com (here). Find the MarkEckel.com YouTube Channel (here). Mark is President of The Comenius Institute (website). Dr. Eckel spends time with Christian young people in public university (1 minute video), teaching at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis, and interprets culture from a Christian vantage point (1 minute video). Consider becoming a Comenius patron (here).
Picture Credit: Luke Renoe, Snappy Goat
FULL TEXT
When I was a boy my sister and I had to find our easter eggs and easter baskets. I hated every minute of that tradition. My sister, loved it. To this day, a look of glee comes over her face as she contemplates finding hidden treasure.
You, your family, your friends could have an Easter tradition. Maybe you enjoy Easter egg hunts. Or maybe someone cooks a big meal for your whole family to enjoy. Perhaps you look forward to spring with reminders of little chicks and bunnies. Or, perchance, you can’t wait for the yearly sale of marshmallow “Peeps.”
Some traditions are just rituals. They may not be right or wrong, good or bad. But there are some traditions that arise out of truth claims. The apostle Paul used the word “tradition” to explain truths given in Scripture. In our English Bible translations, a person was to “hold on” to a “received” (1) truth and that teaching was “passed on” (2). These words and phrases come from the Greek word for “tradition,” paradosis – something passed down through generations. “Tradition” meant the transfer of important information to be kept intact from one person to another. The word “tradition” comes from a root word meaning the content and its communication are fused. The truth was inseparable from the truth telling.
1 Corinthians 15:3, for instance, records the key content of the Christian belief system which Paul had both received and passed on: Jesus’ atoning death and resurrection. But verse one says the Corinthians themselves had also received this information. The Gospel which Paul preached to them was where they had taken their stand. (3)
So I am telling the truth about Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. We Christians say, “He is risen!” and I can hear my brothers and sisters in the The Faith respond, “He is risen indeed.” For Truth in Two this is Dr. Mark Eckel, president of The Comenius Institute, personally accepting the truth-tradition of Jesus death, burial, and resurrection given to me.
AFTERWORD
FOOTNOTES (1) 1 Co 11:23; 15:1, 3; Gal 1:9, 12; Col 2:6; Phil 4:9; 1 Thess 2:13; 4:1; 2 Thess 3:6.
(2) Oral transmission of religious instruction is meant. Fee NICNT First Corinthians, p. 499, n.29; p. 548.
References to “received,” “passed on,” “hold to,” “teaching,” and “tradition” all come from the same root word making the meaning of this word multidimensional: content and its communication are fused.
(3) “On which you had taken your stand” might be better understood as “in which”; the difference being not so much a change in location but our submissiveness to the Truth. See Romans 15:2 for the same construction.