Does God reveal himself in scripture and tradition?

Answer 1

God reveals himself in Scripture -- Yes.

God also reveals himself through Creation. (Rom 1:20)

But -- God reveals himself in 'tradition'? I'm not so sure about that. Many traditions for example in Christendom, find their origins in ancient non-Bible religions; ie the Christmas traditions; the clergy/laity tradition; the traditional mainstream belief in the 'eternal torment' concept, with all their hellfire & brimstone sermon traditions.

There are some traditions that are Bible based; for example showing respect for older people; taking care of the needy.

But by-&-large, many traditions are simply 'man-made. Jesus himself often warned about the 'traditions of men' when speaking about religious things that people do.

Catholic AnswerThere have been and are many revelations of God, from the creation and existent of the earth, itself. But the fullest, most complete revelation of God is in His Son, Jesus Christ, not only the fullest, but the most perfect. Our Blessed Lord, being the complete Revelation of God to us, continues to reveal Himself all throughout the world, and throughout history through His Church and through Tradition.

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There are two kinds of tradition in the Catholic Church. The one with a small "t" refers to man-made traditions that Our Blessed Lord was talking about. The other kind of Tradition (with a capital "T") is literally a "handing on" so Tradition first of all means the passing down of God's Word. God reveals Himself most of all through His Son, Our Blessed Lord, and the Son taught the apostles (the first Bishops of the Church). They, in turn, taught all knowledge of God, and eventually put some of it down in words: from which we get the New Testament.

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In other words, the Tradition that Our Blessed Lord handed down to us in the teaching of the Magisterium (the Bishops world-wide under the direction of the Holy Father, who is Our Blessed Lord's Vicar on earth. From that Tradition, we get the Bible, which was inspired by the Holy Ghost. In other words, and this is very important, all Scripture comes out of Tradition. The Old Testament came out of the Traditions taught by Moses and the priests of the Old Covenant. The New Testament came out of the Bishops and the Pope of the New Covenant.

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from A Catholic Dictionary, edited by Donald Attwater, Second edition, revised 1957

Tradition: The sum of revealed doctrine which has not been committed to sacred Scripture (though it may have appeared in uninspired writing) but which has been handed down by a series of legitimate shepherds of the Church from age to age. As revelation is must have come to the Apostles directly from the lips of Christ or been handed down by the Apostles at the dictation of the Holy Ghost. More broadly the term is used for the sum of doctrine revealed either in Scripture or by word of mouth: so in 2 Thess. ii, 14: "Hold by the traditions you have learned, in word or in writing, from us."

from The Catechism of the Catholic Church, second edition, English translation 1994

81 "Sacred Scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit." (Dei Verbum 9)

"And [Holy] Tradition transmits in its entirety the Word of God which has been entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit. It transmits it to the successors of the apostles so that, enlightened by the Spirit of truth, they may faithfully preserve, expound, and spread it aboard by their preaching. .

422 "But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as a sons." This is "the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God": God has visited his people. He has fulfilled the promise he made to Abraham and his descendants. He acted far beyond all expectation -- he has sent his own "beloved Son."

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141 "The church has always venerated the divine Scriptures as she venerated the Body of the Lord" (Dei Verbum) 21): both nourish the govern the whole Christian life. "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path" (Ps119:105; cf. Isa 50:4).