Different ontological and epistemological principles of understanding the source text form the basis of religious literature translations in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In the community of religious freethinkers they were the subject of analysis, individual interpretation and exemplary retelling based on a variety of sources. Striving of the representatives of official religious denominations (Maciej X, deacon Fyodor) who understood the translated text as revelatory for a consistent explanation of the truths contained therein embodied in the translation into Church Slavonic and other Slavic languages. Representatives of the major currents of Reformation used the canonical texts as a means of confirming their theories and propaganda and resorted to simplified translations. Abundance and imperfections of the texts arising in the XVI century pushed A. Kurbsky, K. Ostrozhsky and other Orthodox translators to search and attempt to revive the translation tradition of Cyril and Methodius which was substantially updated and developed in the XV century by Maxim the Greek.