Department of Biblical Studies

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Ignoratio Scripturarum ignoratio Christi est - Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.

St. Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah (CCL 73, p. 1)

From the earliest days of Christianity, biblical studies have held a unique position within Christian theology. The Second Vatican Council, the Constitution Dei Verbum (art. 24) reaffirmed this view when it quoted the statement of Popes Leo XIII and Benedict XV that the study of Sacred Scripture is, as it were, the soul of sacred theology. Therefore, the study of the sacred writings of the God´s people provides the foundation for all theological research, including that of our faculty.

If we were to express this fact in the vocabulary of the natural sciences, the study of the Bible constitutes the foundational research, which is then subsequently applied in the various disciplines of systematic theology to a body of creedal truths and moral principles, and in the disciplines of practical theology to liturgical and juridical prescriptions or pastoral and catechetical approaches. Thus, although the study of biblical studies does not produce immediate theological results, it must nevertheless be recognized that no theological doctrine can bear the fruit of true knowledge without a systematic, in-depth, free, scholarly study of the Holy Scriptures.

That is why the Department of Biblical Studies at our Faculty has its unchallengeable place in the basic structure of the research-education process, so that every graduate of the Department, whatever field of theological research he or she decides to pursue, realizes that without a solid grounding in Scripture one cannot be successful in the research. Our department has two basic parts: the Seminary of Old Testament Studies and the Seminary of New Testament Studies. Their effective functioning is underpinned by the teaching of auxiliary biblical sciences such as biblical languages, biblical archaeology, or the various hermeneutical methodologies presented in the document of the Pontifical Biblical Commission: Interpretation of the Bible in the Church (1993).