History and Diversity

The Orthodox and Catholic divisions of Christianity separated from one another in the year 1054 CE in what is referred to as "the Great Schism." As with the breaks between Catholics and Protestants centuries later (see the discussion of "History and Diversity" on the Protestantism page of this website), the causes of these divisions were both theological and political. The usually cited theological reason deals with a fine point in understanding the doctrine of Trinity (see the discussion of this doctrine on the "Christianity" page) that goes far beyond the concerns of this website to explain (for the curious, it is called the "Filioque controversy" because it concerns whether the Spirit proceeds directly from the Father [like the Son] or from the Father "and the Son"). At least as important, in terms of historical causes, was the break that was occurring between the eastern and western remnants of the Roman Empire. What are now called the Orthodox churches were in the eastern portion of the divide and granted "primacy" (status as "first among equals") to the bishop of Constantinople (modern Istanbul); the churches in the western division would come to be known as Catholic churches and granted "primacy" to the bishop of Rome, who in that function is called the Pope.

In the almost 1,000 years since the Great Schism, the Orthodox churches have continued to divide largely along linguistic and ethnic lines, which each group having its own patriarch (chief bishop for the particular group. The largest of these linguistic/ethnic groups within in the United States is the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. Others include Russian (officially named, "The Orthodox Church in America"), Syrian (under the label, "Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church"), Slovakian, Romanian, Serbian and Ukrainian orthodox churches.

Orthodoxy's Scriptures

Even by the time of Jesus of Nazareth it was already the case that many Jews could no longer speak the Hebrew language in which their scriptures were originally written. Most Jews living in their ancestral homelands spoke Aramaic (a language closely related to Hebrew, and used in some chapters of the Tanakh), and the Jewish scriptures were eventually translated into that language (these translations are called the "Targumim" or "Targums"). Jews living outside the ancestral homeland (in the "Diaspora") primarily spoke Hellenistic Greek, due to the influence of Alexander the Great on the Eastern Mediterranean. They too had a translation of their scriptures, known as the Septuagint.

Because Judaism had not addressed the issue of a "canon" (a formal and official list of which writings are considered "scripture") by this period, and because the book format had yet to be invented so that all "books" were in fact scrolls, there was no agreed upon list as to which scrolls were to be included among the "prophets" and "writings." Consequently, the translated scrolls that made up the Septuagint usually included some books that were not later included in Tanakh -- and indeed some of those books were most likely originally written in the Greek language.

When Greek-speaking Christians of the first centuries began to use the Jewish scriptures as their own (even before many of the Christian "New Testament" books had been written), it was only natural that they would work with the Septuagint translations. Consequently, Orthodox churches typically include in their canons about 10 books (depending on how they are divided and on some regional differences between the various divisions of the Orthodox church) not included in Tanakh.  Among these are the books of the Maccabees, Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Sirach, Wisdom of Solomon, and some additional works associated with the prophets Jeremiah and Daniel.

Orthodoxy's Practices

The most likely issue that Scouts and Scouters are likely to encounter with regard to Orthodox Christian members are differences for determining the observance of Easter (the festival of Jesus' resurrection), one of the major Christian holidays. Unlike Christmas (the other major Christian holiday observed on December 25), Christians do not celebrate Easter on a set day of the year. Rather, it is celebrated on the first Sunday following the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox (the reason is to keep it in rough approximation with the Jewish Passover, that's date is set in terms of Judaism's lunar rather than solar calendar). All Christians are in agreement on this method of calculating when Easter will be celebrated within any particular year. However, Orthodox Christians begin with a different date for beginning the calculation. Rather than using the Gregorian calendar (the general basis for the modern Western calendar) for determining the date of the spring equinox, most Orthodox churches use the date in the older Julian calendar. For all other Christian groups, the starting date in the calculation is always March 21 (even though the astronomical equinox may be on March 20, 21, or 22). As a result, "Orthodox Easter" may fall at the same time as "western Easter" or may be one, four or even five weeks later.

Copyright © 2005 Scouting and Religious Diversity
Last modified: 10/10/05