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Examined Doctrine

Council of Constantinople I on Authority of Scripture

381 · ECUMENICAL COUNCIL · DOCUMENT, NOT A PERSON
READ IN A PRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°
STANCE

Scripture with tradition and church teaching office

Canon 1 — "The Faith of the Three Hundred and Eighteen Fathers assembled at Nice in Bithynia shall not be set aside."

THE POSITION

Canon 1 makes the Nicene faith itself a fixed and irreformable standard and anathematizes named heresies by conciliar act. The creed's own appeals to Scripture — "rose again according to the Scriptures," the Spirit "who spoke by the prophets" — sit inside a document whose binding force is conciliar.

6 OTHERS HOLD THIS

AquinasBasil the GreatChalcedonChrysostomEphesusNicaea I
Scripture alone is the final, only infallible authorityJACOBUS ARMINIUS · VODDIE BAUCHAM · CALVIN · JONATHAN EDWARDS · THE CHURCH OF ELEVEN22 STATEMENT OF FAITH · M. HEISER · JOSH HOWERTON · SECOND LONDON BAPTIST CONFESSION · LUTHER · JOHN MACARTHUR · PHILIP MELANCHTHON · GAVIN ORTLUND · JOHN OWEN · JUSTIN PETERS · JOHN PIPER · R.C. SPROUL · WESLEY · WESTMINSTER CONFESSION · ZWINGLI
Scripture supreme, recognized and interpreted through the churchATHANASIUS · AUGUSTINE · IRENAEUS
See all 29 figures on authority of scripture →

ABOUT THIS FIGURE

Completed the creed with a full article on the Holy Spirit as Lord and Giver of Life, proceeding from the Father. Condemned the Pneumatomachi and Apollinarians.

3 OF 3 POSITIONS QUOTED
Everything Constantinople I holds →
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"Council of Constantinople I on Authority of Scripture", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/constantinople-1/scripture-authority (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/constantinople-1/scripture-authority).

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