Stop Quoting the Church Fathers, They're Not Scripture!

Often, when I write about the Church Fathers, the following statement arises: Why bother quoting these people? They're not authoritative. Their writings aren't scripture. Whatever they said about this or that is worthless if it's not clearly taught in the Bible.

Well, I bother quoting from the early Church Fathers for a number of reasons:

• FIRSTHAND WITNESSES. Many of the Early Church Fathers were taught by the Apostles (or, at least, were taught by people who were taught by the Apostles). No historian worth his weight would throw out the testimony of firsthand and secondhand witnesses. This testimony provides valuable information into HOW the Apostles understood Scripture and HOW the Apostles taught certain doctrines. Scripture doesn't interpret itself and many passages allow multiple interpretations (just look at the Catholic/Protestant debate as well as all the different sects within Protestantism). Since multiple interpretations are possible, I would think any true Bible scholar would be interested in how the people closest to the Apostles actually understood these teachings.

• NO LANGUAGE BARRIER. Another reason to look at the writings of the Church Fathers is that these men literally spoke the language in which the New Testament was written. We rely on interpretations and lexicons. They could pick up an original text and read it with understanding. No nuance of the text, which for us can be lost in the translation, was hidden from them.
  

• UNDERSTANDING of TRADITIONS. The early Church Fathers grew up amongst the traditions of the Jewish culture. The same traditions that underlie the New Testament. They were aware of them. They made sense to them. We on the other hand, have an outsider's understanding of these traditions. An example is the Jewish understanding of the Passover. Understanding these traditions suddenly makes it clear WHY the early church understood Jesus' words "This is my body" to be literal. We miss this because we have no concept of the tradition in which it's steeped.

• THE FIRST BIBLE COMMENTARIES. Finally, few Bible scholars today would think of examining a passage of scripture, especially a complicated or troublesome passage, without referring to one or more of the countless Bible Commentaries available on the market. A trip to the local Christian bookstore reveals hundreds of these works on the shelves. And countless pastors and theologians make use of them. And yet, while making use of these Bible Commentaries written by men 2000 years after the fact, we would think to disregard the Biblical analysis of Christian writers who lived just decades after Christ walked he earth?
  

These are just a few reasons why the writings of the Church Fathers are valuable. No, their writings aren't scripture, but they provide insight that simply can't be found anywhere else as to the authentic interpretation of Scripture and the life and times of the early Church. We can ignore them, but to do so is to ignore history in favor of something of our own creation.