biblical exegesis

biblical exegesis, from the mid‐5th century, can be seen in terms of a scholastic repetition where original works are systematic guides to the inherited tradition. Irish exegesis has to be interpreted in this way, as it is paralleled in content and quality by work from the rest of the Latin world. However, it does have some qualities of its own. The productivity of Europe between 500 and 800 is meagre when compared with the 9th century, but in this period the work of Irish scholars is significant disproportionally to the country's size or background. Another peculiarity of Irish exegesis is the extent to which it is anonymous: we possess few names, and it is modern research that attributes works to Irish scholars. This raises the question of an Irish school of exegesis, and the search for tell‐tale Irish symptoms in such works. While there are prominent features of Irish works (e.g. interest in grammar and computistics in the midst of exegesis), these cannot settle the question as they are not exclusively Irish.

Bibliography

O'Loughlin, T.(ed.), The Scriptures and Early Medieval Ireland (1999)

Thomas O'Loughlin