The situation of the Eastern Churches

There are two reasons why research into biblical exegesis in the Orthodox Churches in the period between 1450 and 1750 is difficult. First of all, this was a very challenging time for the Orthodox Churches in the East because, with the exception of the Russian Church, none of them enjoyed much autonomy. Secondly, a remarkably large number of exegetical works from this period have to this day still not been published. On the other hand, these difficulties make the topic of this article all the more interesting, because no one has yet published a systematic study on this subject.

The Ottoman conquest of the Byzantine Empire affected not only the Greek-speaking Orthodox world, but also the Romanian and Slavic Orthodox Churches, which included Russian, Serbian and Bulgarian branches. After 1450 Greek Orthodoxy struggled for survival under very difficult circumstances. Within the conquered Greek region the monks on Mount Athos were the only community who were able to enjoy relative freedom, and in particular they had the benefit of being able to use the renowned monastic libraries in this location. They were able to study manuscripts with classical commentaries written by Greek patristic authors. A few Greek theologians were able to visit the great educational centres of Europe, but they were not able to contribute the kind of magnificent scholarship that had been evident in the works of earlier Greek exegetical writers. After the conquest of Constantinople many more Byzantine scholars sought refuge in the great educational centres of Europe. From these distant places they brought about a rekindling of interest in classical Greek language and philosophy. Thanks to the establishment of a number of Greek printing presses outside Greece, a range of biblical, liturgical and patristic texts and some modern Greek translations were published in this period. The spread of printing across Europe served at the same time to disseminate the works of classical Greek authors as well as those of the early Greek Church Fathers. At this time there is very little evidence of the acceptance of enlightened ideas in the Greek Orthodox exegetical tradition because theology was not studied as an academic discipline.