BTW, what's the deal with some Orthodox attacking the OSB? I visited a site called True Orthodoxy.com (PM me it that's wrong), and they had quite a lot to say about the OSB's notes. Is True Orthodoxy schismatic?
Gabriel
I think you might be referring to the Orthodox Christian Information Center (
www.orthodoxinfo.com), which bills itself as the web site for "True Orthodoxy"--I did a Google search on the phrase "True Orthodoxy", and this was the first web site listed. This web site represents the traditionalist camps of the Orthodox Church such as the Greek Old-Calendarist churches (of which our site admin Anastasios is a member) and what many claim ROCOR used to be. To my knowledge, the churches represented by the OCIC have never judged the "mainstream" Orthodox jurisdictions to be totally apostate and devoid of sacramental grace, but they have broken communion with "mainstream" Orthodoxy in resistance to what they see as modernist and ecumenist trends toward eventual apostasy. I have no personal reason to consider them schismatic, though I identify myself solidly with the mainstream.
I am familiar with Archimandrite Ephrem's criticism of the OSB as posted on the OCIC web site, and I can't say I totally disagree with many of the points he makes. Even my "mainstream" priest has criticized the OSB as being much less than the ideal for which the Orthodox Church should strive, and he provided most of the study notes for a couple of the NT books. I get the impression that he sees the OSB as a needed attempt to make an Orthodox understanding of the Bible available to the English-speaking world, but that it's right now very much like a toddler's first steps; we should try to do a lot better in the future--his main problem is the choice of the NKJV rather than the RSV that he prefers. Personally, if I really wanted to conduct an in depth study of the Bible, I would want to read the RSV together with whole books of Patristic commentary, not just the relatively scanty study notes in the OSB.
(Note: All my references above to the OSB refer to the New Testament published years ago.)