This speech by S. was devoted to a seemingly absolutely self-evident topic: Orthodox academic theology should be based on the study of Greek and Latin languages, that mastery of them is conditio sine qua non and that the results of philological research would be especially important. However, for a person who knows the context of confessional academic discussions of the late nineteenth - early twentieth centuries, careful reading of the text shows that S. intervenes in several active discussions of his time. Starting with rather obvious examples, when a theologian who is not familiar with philology will be inclined to give a false meaning to linguistic variation (atticism of Byzantine writers, rhetorical construction of the text), S. argues for the necessity of critical textology and preparation of critical editions of Christian texts in order to be able to critically correct existing translations - here he already invades the area associated with the critical publication of the Slavic Bible. Then, S. proceeds to the criteria of reliability for such translations and criticizes, among others, the recently published book by N.M. Morozov ‘Revelation in a Thunderstorm and a Storm’, and arrangements of it by L.N. Tolstoy for their philological inaccuracy. After that, the author demonstrates examples of incomprehensible, awkward or outright incorrect translation from Greek into Slavic, thereby pointing out the need to correct Church Slavic liturgical books, a demand in lower and higher criticism, including that of the New Testament. The second half of the speech describes a discovery of Greek papyri in Egypt and their significance for researchers.