Writing to the Corinthians, Paul reminds them of the need to keep to the Gospel as he preached it to them. The Gospel is handed on to us by tradition from the Apostles, whom Jesus chose to be with him and who, consequently were eyewitnesses to the undreamed grace of God manifested to us in the Resurrection of Jesus.

The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is thus the first and most important element in the work of "tradition": handing on the Gospel to succeeding generations, without change or corruption. Yet, of course, even in the first generation of the Church, the Gospel had to be preached in ways which would be intelligible to its recipients. We know nothing of the life of Philip and James though there are traditions concerning their deaths, but obviously they were faithful to Jesus even unto death. Sent by Jesus to be his witnesses in the world, like most of the apostles and many other early Christians, they gave their final witness by their death as martyrs.