Does the Orthodox Church Place Tradition Above or Equal to Scripture?
The Orthodox Church sees the Scriptures as inspired and authoritative Holy Tradition: the Word of God. It is crucial to understand how the word “tradition” is used in the New Testament, which condemns the tradition of men (see Mark 7:6-16, and Colossians 2:8), but calls us to follow Apostolic or Holy Traditions (see 2 Thessalonians 2:15, and 2 Thessalonians 3:6). There are five basic sources of the Orthodox Tradition that have been passed on from one generation of the faithful to the next, from Christ and the Apostles, even to the present time: the Holy Scriptures; the Liturgy; the Councils of the Church that put forth the creeds and canons; the lives of the Saints, to include the teachings of the Church Fathers; and finally, the Church art. It is the Church’s understanding that all of these sources of Tradition hold together in unity. One is never used in isolation from the others. It will not work for example, for a person to say, “Well, I can find all that I need to know by staying
