Epiphanius on Scripture and Tradition from the Panarion (Medicine Chest Against All Heresies)

 

I have seen the following quotation from Epiphanius used often by Roman Catholic apologists against sola scriptura:

"It is needful also to make use of tradition, for not everything can be gotten from sacred Scripture. The holy apostles handed down some things in the scriptures, other things in tradition." (Panarion 61:6)

I decided to do some research and studying on this particular quotation as well as the meaning of "tradition" in the writings of Epiphanius. There are two things I want to examine in this article in order to provide an answer to this particular Roman Catholic argument:

(Note: I am using Frank William's edition of the Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis)

The Meaning of "Tradition" (paradosis) in the writings of Epiphanius

Here are some of the meanings (as well as examples) of "tradition" in Epiphanius that I have found:

-The age of Lazarus when the Lord Jesus raised him from the dead (Panarion 66:37 [pg. 265])

-The father of Daniel and the father of the prophet Elijah (Panarion 55:3 [pgs. 80-81])

-The wise men visited Christ two years after His birth (Panarion 51:9 [pgs. 34-35])

-Men should nourish a beard (Panarion 80:7 [pg. 651])

It should be recognized that some of these traditions aren't held by Roman Catholics today, such as the issue about Daniel's father, and especially not the one about men having beards (since most Catholic priests today are shaven). Thus, this already begins to cause problems for the Roman Catholic argument from this citation of Epiphanius from chapter 61.

It gets worse, however. I will quote what William Whitaker says concerning this issue:

"Thirdly , as to the passage which Bellarmine adduces from Panarion 61 , it may indeed be perceived from it that Epiphanius approved of some traditions as apostolical, but yet not that he was so pertinacious a maintainer of them as the papists are. For he says that it is an apostolical tradition "that no one should contract marriage" after a vow of celibacy, and that to do otherwise is impious. So far he and the papists agree. But in that same place Epiphanius affirms that it is better, if one fall in his course, that he should take a wife, even after such a vow, and come at length, even though halt, into the church, than suffer the daily wounds of secret arrows. The papists merely provide that no man shall contract marriage after a vow , but in the meanwhile escape not from those “ secret arrows." Epiphanius asserts that it is safer and better to desist from the race begun, and contract marriage, than to go on to destruction pierced by those deadly shafts of lust. Do they approve of him here? Can they tolerate this opinion of his? Far from it : they pronounce it an impious and sacrilegious crime once to entertain a thought of marriage after such a vow, and they annul such marriages though made and celebrated." (William Whitaker, Disputations on Holy Scripture, pg. 598)