New Testament Approvals
of Extrabiblical Old Testament Traditions

---

…the Pharisees have delivered to the people a great many observances
by succession from their fathers,
which are not written in the laws of Moses.

– Josephus ¹

---

Some Christians pride themselves on taking sledgehammers to the Church’s “traditions of men.”

By manmade tradition, though, they often simply mean, “not found in Scripture.” “If it’s not in the Bible,” so they say, “we can—and often, should—do away with it.”

These Christians, in their quest to defend Scripture as sole source of revelation, quickly encounter a problem: Scripture itself. Throughout the New Testament are many approving references to extrabiblical, Old Testament-era, pre-Christian traditions. Below, we list a few:

• Saint Paul identifies the magicians Moses and Aaron face before Pharaoh—unnamed in Scripture—as “Jannes and Jambres.”²

• If one reads Exodus without the aid of extrabiblical data, they will likely conclude Moses on the mountain receives the Law directly from God Himself.³ Saints Stephen and Paul, however, both believe the tradition—explicated nowhere in Scripture—which says the Law came not directly from God, but through intermediary angels.⁴
  
  
• At both the beginning and end of their 40-year wilderness wanderings, the children of Israel miraculously drink from a water-flowing rock.⁵ Following a then-well-known tradition, Saint Paul says the rock—rather than only appearing those two times recorded in Scripture—followed “our fathers” around the wilderness.⁶
  
  
• Saint Jude, in his short letter of only 25 verses, manages to mention 2 extrabiblical, ancient Jewish traditions:

1. The devil’s dispute with the Archangel Michael over Moses’ body.⁷
2. A quote attributed to “Enoch, seventh from Adam.”⁸
   

• Christ Himself:

1. Celebrates a Hasmonean-era, extrabiblical Jewish feast day—Hanukkah.⁹ 
2. Acknowledges scribes and Pharisees’ teaching authority is legitimate, because they “sit in the seat of Moses.”¹⁰
   

Now, let us inform (or perhaps, remind) readers: the “seat of Moses” was an actual chair in a synagogue—the forerunner of the bishop’s cathedra/chair/throne in Traditional Christian churches. It was reserved for those who possessed teaching authority passed down in a line of succession from Moses (like how a bishop’s chair is reserved for apostles’ successors).¹¹

This whole doctrine of “the seat of Moses,” / Mosaic Succession (“…succession from their fathers,” as Josephus above puts it) is an extrabiblical, oral tradition—one Christ confirms as legitimate.  

---

Notes

1. Josephus, Antiquities 13.10.6

2. 2 Timothy 3:8; references Exodus 7:10–12; cf. Jewish Encyclopedia

3. For language which—without extrabiblical/New Testament clarification—appears to indicate Moses receives the Law unmediated/directly from God, see esp. Exodus 24:12; 31:18; 32:15–16; 34:1. 

4. In Acts 7:53, Saint Stephen mentions the Law’s mediation through angels as though it were such an obvious presupposition, even his mob of enemies must agree. Saint Paul also presupposes this extrabiblical tradition in Galatians 3:19; Hebrews 2:2; cf. Najman.
 
5. Exodus 17:1–7; Numbers 20:2–13; cf. Deuteronomy 8:15.

6. 1 Corinthians 10:1, 4.

7. Jude 9; this Jewish extrabiblical tradition regarding the devil and Saint Michael’s dispute appears in e.g., the Testament (or Assumption) of Moses; cf. Stokes. 

8. Jude 14–15; quotes an extrabiblical tradition which appears in e.g., 1 Enoch 1:9. This is a wholly extrabiblical expansion of material, as Enoch’s only canonical Old Testament appearance is in mysterious passing reference, Genesis 5:18–24.

9. John 10:22–23.

10. Matthew 23:2. 

11. See e.g., Gourinard; Magness, p. 15; Rabinowitz. Cf. again Josephus, Antiquities 13.10.6