Faculty of Roman Catholic Theology
of Cyril and MethodiusComenius University Bratislava
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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).


History of the Department of Biblical Studies

  • De jure, our faculty was erected on 24 June 1919, but it had to wait another seventeen years before it could start working for real. However, already at this formal founding act, ThDr. Jozef Slabý was nominated as a full professor of Biblical sciences. This demonstrates how strong a position Biblical studies had in Catholic theological studies in Slovakia from its very early years.
  • Our faculty could start its academic activity only after the Congregation for Seminaries and Academic Studies issued its Founding decree on August 15, 1935. Subsequently, it was established by the Ministry of Education of the Czechoslovak Republic in Prague and de facto the first students were able to begin their studies there.
  • In the first academic year 1936-1937, the Department of Biblical Studies included: a full-time professor for New Testament, ThDr. Ludvík Matoušů, an associate professor for the Old Testament, ThDr. Štefan Zlatoš, and a alternate professor of Biblical philology, ThDr. Jozef Búda since 1939.
  • In 1940 our faculty was joined to the bundle of Faculties of the then Slovak University under the name: Faculty of Catholic Theology.
  • On 25 June 1945, our faculty was excluded from the Slovak University on ideological grounds and became by the regime a degrading label: "Special Institution of higher education." In the same year ThDr. Štefan Janega, alternate professor of New Testament and Biblical Languages, joined the faculty.
  • In 1949, ThDr. Michal Krovina, later professor of New Testament and dean of the faculty, took the position of assistant professor for New Testament studies.
  • In 1950 by the communist dictatorship deposed and until 1954 imprisoned prof. Jozef Búda. He was replaced by ThDr. Ján Froncz as associate professor of biblical languages.
  • In 1951, ThDr. Michal Krovina was appointed the head of the Department of Biblical Studies. In the same year a new assistant professor for biblical archaeology and languages, ThDr. Alojz Martinec, joined the faculty.
  • In 1968, ThDr. Jozef Búda was allowed to return to the faculty again as Professor of Old Testament and flourishing until 1979.
  • In 1971, a new assistant professor for biblical languages, ThDr. Vincent Mihalovič, joined the Department of Biblical Studies.
  • In 1976, ThDr. Štefan Janega returned to the faculty, this time as Professor of Old Testament, and worked there until 1995.
  • On July 1, 1990 our faculty was readmitted to the branch of faculties at Comenius University Bratislava under a new name: Faculty of Roman Catholic Theology of Cyril and Methodius. One of the first to be founded was the standalone Department of Biblical Studies, which was finally joined by teachers who had previously been forbidden to teach for ideological reasons: ThDr. Vojtech Packa and ThDr. Andrej Dermek SDB, who became the head of the department in the following academic year, 1991.
  • The population of Slovakia, however, showed a great hunger for theological studies, which had been denied to them for so long. Therefore, with the establishment of detached faculty workplaces in Nitra, Banská Bystica and Spišská Kapitula, it was necessary to cover the growing demand of students for biblical science.
  • Therefore, from the time of the academic year 1991, further teachers began to teach at the faculty, who subsequently graduated to the highest academic levels. Among them were the Jesuits Jozef Kyselica SJ and Ján Ďurica SJ, or Ján Maga and Ján Koreň. The contents of auxiliary biblical sciences, which included biblical languages (Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Ancient Slavonic, Arabic), archaeology or exegesis, were also considerably expanded, which were gradually provided by a whole portfolio of teachers.
  • In the following year, 1992, new faculty institutes were added in Košice and Žilina, and the previous teachers were joined by: Pavol Brzý, Jozef Leščinský and a number of assistants. Along with others, biblical languages were taught by: Jiří Novotný SJ or Daniel Škoviera. In these disciplines, the first women within teaching staff in our department started to appear very soon: Mária Kniesová, Helena Gabčová, Anna Koniarová, Mária Rusková.
  • In the second half of the 1990s, the first young licentiates and doctors of biblical studies began to return from their studies abroad, who later became the pllars of biblical scholarship in Slovakia: Anton Tyrol, Pavol Grach, Miroslav Varšo, Stanislav Gurský, Anton Solčiansky, Ľubomír Fabčin, Stanislav Vojtko, Pavol Farkaš, and many others, who, at least for a short period of time, grew their creative talents in our department.
  • In 1999, Andrej Dermek SDB handed over the scepter of the head of our department to Stanislav Vojtko, who headed it until 2004.
  • At the turn of the millennium, Jozef Jančovič and Róbert Lapko, Katarína Gérová, Pavel Vilhan, Jozef Šoška and Vladimír Baxa SDB also began to work in the department. 
  • In 2004, the institutes in Spišská Kapitula and Košice were moved away with their entire staff to form the new Faculty of Theology of the Catholic University in Ružomberok. Our department then worked only in Žilina, Nitra and Banská Bystrica, in addition to Bratislava. Its circles were strengthened this year by the biblical scholar Milan Sova and philologists Martin Zborovjan, Barbora and Svorad Zavarský.
  • In 2005 Pavol Farkas became the head of the department until now. Together with him there were 18 other lecturers working at the department at that time.
  • In 2006, the teaching staff was joined by prominent representatives of contemporary Slovak biblical scholarship, Blažej Štrba and a year later Branislav Kľuska.
  • In 2009 Dagmar Kráľová and Róbert Horka started their academic activity at our department and the institute in Žilina was closed.
  • In 2019, due to rationalisation, also the detached institute in Banská Bystrica ceased its activities and students with teachers moved to the institute in Nitra.
  • In 2022, Martina Korytiaková joined our faculty as a researcher.
  • In 2023, further rationalization was needed, and since then the department has had a single location in Bratislava, from which its members spread the knowledge and understanding of God's Word wherever there is an interest in it.