This query was posted on Facebook by a friend of a friend:
Why are the words of Jesus’s disciples discredited but the words of people appointed saints not? The bible says it was inspired by God. Inspired meaning in the original language is “to breath life into” just as God inspired Adam. Does Orthodox religion not believe anything written in holy scripture? Forgive me I am still learning.
My response:
Your proposition is not what Orthodox believe. Scripture forms the highest part of Orthodox tradition, but, by its own words, it is not the only source of the faith, nor is it the pillar and ground of truth (1 Timothy 3:15). It is interesting that people who often accuse Orthodoxy of ignoring scripture choose to ignore very clear scriptural teachings in attacking the Church. Orthodoxy takes the Bible at its word: that there are oral traditions we are to follow (2 Thessalonians 2:15), that not all things Christ did were written (John 21:25), that what was written was written so that we may believe that Christ is God (John 20:30-31), and that His fullness is found in the Church, which is His body (Ephesians 1: 22-23). The faith has been revealed not just in written words (recall the Church functioned for decades with no written accounts and centuries without an agreed canon of the Bible). The Bible is useful and profitable (in its own words!) but it is not the fullness of the faith.
