Synod of Jerusalem
Convened under Patriarch Dositheus of Jerusalem, the synod answered Calvinizing propositions in the confession attributed to Cyril Lucaris and issued the Confession of Dositheus on Scripture, the Church, grace, and the mysteries.
Historical context
The decrees belong to seventeenth-century Orthodox engagement with Protestant and Roman Catholic polemics. Their terminology should be read in that setting rather than treated as an exhaustive statement of every later Orthodox formulation.
Key points
- The synod's eighteen decrees answer corresponding articles in the confession attributed to Lucaris.
- The decrees address biblical authority, grace and free will, the Church, and the mysteries.
- Jerusalem 1672 is a major local synod, not one of the seven ecumenical councils.
Scripture
- 2 Timothy 3:16–17 — Paul describes Scripture as God-breathed and useful for teaching and formation.
- 1 Timothy 3:15 — The Church is called the pillar and ground of the truth.
Primary sources
The synod confesses:
Decree II begins its account of authority by affirming that the Scriptures are God-taught.
We believe the Divine and Sacred Scriptures to be God-taught; and, therefore, we ought to believe the same without doubting
Passage context and translation
Decree II answers a dispute about Scripture and ecclesial interpretation; the excerpt opens the decree's positive account before its polemical application.
After the excerpt
yet not otherwise than as the Catholic Church hath interpreted and delivered the same