![]() | You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Ukrainian. (January 2019) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
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A tomos (Greek: τόμος, romanized: tomos, lit. 'section', 'part of', 'part which is cut') in the Eastern Orthodox Church is a decree of the head of a particular Eastern Orthodox church on certain matters (such as the level of dependence of an autonomous church from its mother church).[1]
Tomos is a Greek word; it can be literally translated as 'a section'. "In the narrower meaning in Orthodox church terminology, a tomos is [...] a scroll or a small book, but one with a very specific purpose — it codifies a decision by a Holy Synod, or council of Orthodox bishops."[2] The translation of the word tomos in English is document.[3]
The word is 'tomos,' and it was one of the most searched words on Google in Ukraine this year. In Greek, it literally means 'a section' and is related to the verb 'to cut.'
By extension, it came to refer to a section of a papyrus scroll, on which books used to be written, and then to a volume of a book, which is where we also get the English word 'tome'. [...]
In the narrower meaning in Orthodox church terminology, a tomos is indeed a scroll or a small book, but one with a very specific purpose — it codifies a decision by a holy synod, or council of Orthodox bishops.