Scripture and Sacred Tradition
Catholic teaching holds that God's revelation comes to us through two streams that flow from the same source: Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition. These are not in competition — they are united in transmitting "the deposit of faith" (CCC §84) entrusted by Christ to the apostles. Scripture is the written form; Tradition is the living transmission of the apostolic preaching, worship, and practice. The Catholic Bible includes 73 books (the Protestant 66 plus 7 deuterocanonical books). These ten passages anchor the doctrine.
What Scripture says
All quotations from the World English Bible (public domain).
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2 Thessalonians 2:15
So then, brothers, stand firm, and hold the traditions which you were taught by us, whether by word, or by letter.
Paul commands holding traditions transmitted by WORD or by letter. Both are authoritative.
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1 Corinthians 11:2
Now I praise you, brothers, that you remember me in all things, and hold firm the traditions, even as I delivered them to you.
Paul praises holding the traditions he delivered. Tradition is apostolic deposit, not human invention.
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2 Thessalonians 3:6
Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother who walks in rebellion, and not after the tradition which they received from us.
Departure from apostolic tradition is grounds for discipline.
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John 21:25
There are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they would all be written, I suppose that even the world itself wouldn't have room for the books that would be written.
Not everything Christ did or taught is in Scripture. The early Church remembered and transmitted what was not written.
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2 John 1:12
Having many things to write to you, I don't want to do so with paper and ink, but I hope to come to you, and to speak face to face, that our joy may be made full.
Some apostolic teaching was deliberately transmitted face-to-face, not in writing.
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3 John 1:13-14
I had many things to write to you, but I am unwilling to write to you with ink and pen; but I hope to see you soon, and we will speak face to face.
A second witness to oral apostolic transmission as a deliberate practice.
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1 Timothy 3:15
but if I wait long, that you may know how men ought to behave themselves in the house of God, which is the assembly of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
The Church — not the Bible alone — is called "the pillar and ground of the truth." Scripture is read within the Church.
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2 Timothy 2:2
The things which you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit the same things to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
A four-generation chain of oral apostolic transmission — Paul → Timothy → faithful men → others.
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Luke 1:1-4
Since many have undertaken to set in order a narrative concerning those matters which have been fulfilled among us, even as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having traced the course of all things accurately from the first, to write to you in order, most excellent Theophilus; that you might know the certainty concerning the things in which you were instructed.
Luke himself describes Scripture as written FROM apostolic tradition that already existed orally.
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2 Peter 1:20-21
knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation. For no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke, being moved by the Holy Spirit.
Scripture is not subject to private interpretation. Catholic teaching reads this as requiring interpretation within the Church and her Tradition.
A prayer
Father, You have given us Your Word — both written in Scripture and lived in the Tradition handed down by the apostles. Help us to receive both with gratitude, to read Scripture in the heart of the Church, and to walk in the faith handed down from the apostles. Amen.