The Bible is considered as "first" or "above all" sources of divine revelation. Tradition is "secondary", and used only to interpret the Bible. It has therefore less authority than the Bible itself.
There seems to be a difference in opinion about the degree of authority tradition has though. For some (e.g.some Roman Catholics), once church tradition has settled on an Bible interpretation, this interpretation is considered final. No change is allowed.
Others consider tradition more like a guide to understand difficult theological issues until a better explanation is found, in which case the old interpretation is discarded and the new adopted.
This differs from sola scriptura in which tradition has no value for deciding issues of faith that involve doctrines.
Sola scriptura (Latin by Scripture alone) is one of five important slogans of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century.
Sola scriptura did not originally signify a radical rejection of all authority of the Church to interpret the Scriptures, but rather represented a claim that the teaching authority of the Church is regulated by the Bible, constrained by Scripture in both a limiting and a directing sense.
Sola scriptura is still a doctrinal commitment of conservative branches of the Lutheran churches, Reformed churches, Baptist churches, and their offshoots, and other Protestants, especially where they describe themselves by the slogan, "Bible-believing" (See Fundamentalism).
PrimaScriptura is excluded by "Dei Verbum," which iterates and reiterates the conjoining of Tradition plus Holy Scripture; each acting as a check and rule on each other; all as interpreted through the divinely-guided teaching of Peter and the Apostles.
PrimaScriptura is a theological absurdity, as the teaching of the apostolic Church predated any consigning of the Gospel to writing.
July 12, 2004 06:54 AM The underlying assumption of primaScriptura must be examined: that Tradition as it was initially transmitted before the death of the last was inspired, but Tradition as we receive it today is not inspired.
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