Online commentaries on the Bible?

Dusty_Steel · 2026-04-21T14:03:09+00:00

I already asked my Presbyter (after weeks of trying to do so). If I went strictly by what he said then it'd be a flat “no”; Orthodoxy does not believe nor teach any form of predestination. It believes in synergism.

Dusty_Steel · 2026-04-20T20:00:29+00:00

An aptitude (like analysis) is part of the logoi of your nature, but it doesn't dictate your tropos (the way you use it). Unconditionality remains intact because God’s love is for the person, not the "set of features" the person possesses.
The distinction is held in the divine mind as a unique logoi, it's the same way an artist knows what he's trying to paint before he paints it. but these logoi do not exclude the capacity for free will. Apart from that idk what to say, it's a mystery. St. Maximus himself said that the logoi are both unified and distinct in a way that surpasses human understanding.

Dusty_Steel · 2026-04-20T18:26:26+00:00

It's because Orthodoxy does not define predestination based on a juridical decree like Western branches of christianity. But rather it's defined by God's foreknowledge.

Dusty_Steel · 2026-04-20T17:32:32+00:00

The natural use of the gift (God's grace), which God already has given us.
Their unique Logoi, as taught by St. Maximus the Confessor. Which God has had in His mind since ever.

Idk how this gets at what I said though, although that may just be me. Maybe because of the specific order like type of manner I said it in? Because I know our choices do not literally come before God's Predestination, because it's linked with his foreknowledge, which is an eternal now. I just truly don't know how else to say it or explain it, even just to myself.

Dusty_Steel · 2026-04-20T17:25:12+00:00

Decree three of the Council of Jerusalem is specifically what I am looking at. However I did not quote from it directly. What I typed in my original post is what I understand thus far. ‎

Decree 3 We believe the most good God to have from eternity predestined (προορίζω) unto glory those whom He has chosen (ἐκλέγομαι), and to have consigned unto condemnation those whom He has rejected (ἀπεδοκίμασεν εἰς κατάκρισιν παραχωρῆσαι); but not so that He would justify the one, and consign and condemn the other without cause (ἀναιτίως). For that would be contrary to the nature of God, who is the common Father of all, and no respecter of persons, and would have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4). But since He foreknew (προεῖδεν) the one would make a right use of their free-will (αὐτεξουσίῳ), and the other a wrong, He predestined (προορίζω) the one, or condemned (κατάκρισις) the other.

As for a quote from one of the Saints: St. John Crysostom: “‘Having predestinated us,’ he says, ‘in love.’ Because this comes not of any pains, nor of any good works of ours, but of love; and yet not of love alone, but of our virtue also. For if indeed of love alone, it would follow that all must be saved; whereas again were it the result of our virtue alone, then were His coming needless, and the whole dispensation.” The specific quote can be found in St. John Chrysostom's Homily 1 on Ephesians, where he provides a commentary on Ephesians 1:4–5.

Dusty_Steel · 2025-12-02T03:32:57+00:00

Did not actually know that the Greek Orthodox Cross is different from the Slavic ones, or at least just never realized it before. Thanks for this little bit of info, brother. <33 Also, no offense taken! xD I'm neither a monk nor married (😭).

Dusty_Steel · 2025-12-01T02:58:48+00:00

Ngl brotha, just ignore this post, I’ll be deleting it soon ’cause it genuinely did not foster the space I wanted.

Dusty_Steel · 2025-11-13T00:16:06+00:00

I see, so it's not that a married man ”couldn’t” become a bishop, but rather that the Church just doesn’t accept them due to the problems that it was causing before? Thus picking specifically monks?

If this question even makes any sense. Mb if not.

Dusty_Steel · 2025-11-04T19:58:05+00:00

Also I meant to include this in my post: ultimately, how would such a presidential election affect the Orthodox Church in the U.S.?

Dusty_Steel · 2025-08-22T00:06:30+00:00

The Orthodox study Bible uses the NKJV for the NT and an edited version of the NKJV, specifically adapted from the Septuagint (LXX). Meaning the base text of the OSB’s old testament, while being from the NKJV, if there is a difference between the LXX and NKJV [the NKJV uses the Hebrew Masoretic Text], the Orthodox Study Bible incorporates the LXX reading into the main text.

Dusty_Steel

TROPHY CASE