1 Corinthians 11:2

Now I praise you that ye remember me in all things, and hold fast the traditions, even as I delivered them to you.

Traditions of men are not necessarily binding, but the holy traditions delivered by the apostles of Christ were of the highest authority. For a considerable part of the first century, there existed many written documents of the Christian religion (Luke 1:1); but such written documents were extensively supplemented by the word-of-mouth teaching which was promulgated by apostles and eyewitnesses of the inception of Christianity. See my Commentary on Mark, pp. 3,4.

Hold fast the traditions ... "This ordinarily means `handed down from generation to generation'; but here it refers to the doctrine orally delivered by the apostles to the churches in the first Christian generation."[10] In view of the meaning here, the old KJV rendition of "ordinances" is better than "traditions," despite the fact of the latter being the literal meaning.[11]

[10] John William Russell, Compact Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1964), p. 421.

[11] F. W. Farrar, Pulpit Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1950), p. 361.