The teachings we passed on to you

"So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter." (2 Thessalonians 2:15)

The command to “stand firm and hold fast” wasn’t about paper, it was about continuity of truth and faith through community, memory, and practice.

When Paul says “whether by word of mouth or by letter,” he’s acknowledging two channels of transmission:

1. Oral tradition — the spoken teachings of the apostles, retold and reinforced within the Christian community.

2. Written letters — documents like the ones we now call epistles, which were circulated among churches.

In the first-century Mediterranean world, oral tradition wasn’t a sloppy game of “telephone.” Oral cultures had rigorous methods for preserving content accurately — repetition, memorization, public reading, and communal correction. It’s why rabbis could pass down massive sections of Torah orally with remarkable consistency.

Copyist errors inevitably happened. Ancient copying was a manual, human process, and no serious historian or theologian would claim absolute textual perfection. But Paul wasn’t naïve; he wasn’t placing his confidence in ink and papyrus surviving flawlessly. His concern was the faithfulness of the community in living out and transmitting the apostolic teaching — not the mechanical perfection of manuscripts.

Think of it this way: Paul’s mental framework was more like a living chain of witness than a static archive. The “teachings” were a living tradition — rooted in the message of Christ, embodied in communal worship, and safeguarded through shared life, not simply by guarding a physical letter from decay.

So, when Paul said to “hold fast,” he was saying:

“Stay anchored in the apostolic faith you received — whether you heard it in person or read it in our letters — and don’t let anyone distort it.”

That faith was preserved not by ink that never faded, but by communities that never stopped confessing.

If we follow that thread through early Christian history — from Paul’s letters to the creeds, from oral proclamation to written canon — we can see that the heart of his command was never “preserve the text perfectly,” but rather “preserve the truth faithfully.”

Oral and written transmission 

In the first century, when Paul wrote his letters, there was no “New Testament” yet. Each congregation might have a few letters, some sayings of Jesus, and—most importantly—living teachers who had learned from the apostles or their immediate followers. So, what kept everything coherent before the canon existed?

1. The oral tradition came first.
Jesus himself never wrote anything down (that we know of). His words and actions were remembered and retold by his disciples in worship, teaching, and evangelism. These weren’t casual anecdotes—they were part of the community’s sacred memory. The early church was liturgical and oral, meaning truth was preserved in repeated forms: prayers, hymns, creeds, and the Eucharist itself.

You can see traces of this in Paul’s letters. For example, in 1 Corinthians 15:3–5 he says, “I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received…” — that’s technical language for passing on a tradition. He’s reciting an early creed about Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. It existed before his letter.

2. Written texts emerged to support that oral core.
The apostles’ letters and the Gospels were written into that living oral framework, not to replace it. When Paul says “whether by word of mouth or by letter,” he’s saying both are valid vehicles of apostolic teaching. The letter reinforces what the church already knows through its oral instruction.

These writings were read aloud in gatherings (see 1 Thessalonians 5:27), copied, and shared between churches. Over time, collections formed, and by the 2nd century, certain writings—Paul’s letters, the four Gospels—were already regarded as uniquely authoritative.

3. The early church saw the “Rule of Faith” as the bridge.
Before the New Testament was finalized, early Christians used what they called the regula fidei — the Rule of Faith — a summary of apostolic teaching used to interpret Scripture and test new ideas. Think of it as a verbal compass ensuring that even if a copyist made a textual error, the core truth stayed on course. This “rule” later evolved into the Apostles’ Creed and Nicene Creed.

So, by the time the canon was being formalized (2nd–4th centuries), the church didn’t simply gather up books; it recognized writings that matched what had already been consistently confessed and practiced. That’s how the “living tradition” and the “written word” harmonized.

In short:

• The oral tradition carried the living heartbeat of the faith.

• The written word anchored it in text.

• The community, through worship and teaching, preserved both.

Paul’s words in 2 Thessalonians 2:15, then, were prophetic — he was setting in motion the dual fidelity of Christianity: the faith handed down by both verbal word and letter, guarded by the community itself.

Paul said "stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you." 

We can see that the heart of his command was never “preserve the text perfectly,” but rather “preserve the truth faithfully.”