Synod of Jassy (Iași)
The synod examined Peter Mogila's Orthodox Confession and made corrections before the confession's wider circulation and patriarchal approval.
Historical context
Seventeenth-century Orthodox leaders were answering theological pressures from both Protestant and Roman Catholic settings. The text associated with Jassy is not simply identical to Mogila's first draft.
Key points
- Distinguish Mogila's initial composition from the corrected confession.
- The meeting is an important local synod, not one of the seven ecumenical councils.
- Read its catechetical formulations within the seventeenth-century debates that prompted them.
Scripture
- James 2:24-26 — The first answer of the confession cites James on justification, works and living faith.
Primary sources
In Part I, Question 1, the catechism answers:
The later approved Orthodox Confession associated with Jassy opens its first answer by joining right faith with good works.
Right Faith and good Works; for whosoever holdeth these two, the same is a good Christian, and hath certain Hope of eternal Salvation
Passage context and translation
Question 1 asks what a Catholic and Orthodox Christian must believe and do to have eternal life. Its answer joins right faith with good works and cites James 2:24 and 2:26, then 1 Timothy 1:19 and 3:9. The linked 1898 edition transmits the later approved confession associated with Jassy, not minutes of the synod or the first draft of Mogila's catechism.
Before the excerpt
What doth it behove a Catholic and Orthodox Christian Man to believe and do, that he may have eternal life? Answer.
After the excerpt
, as saith the Scripture