1101 Introduction to the Bible (Prelim)

This first-year paper investigates the nature and purpose of the Bible, giving attention not only to the content of the biblical books but also to aspects of their historical setting as well as their interpretation and reception in Jewish and Christian belief and practice.

Two sets of 8 lectures in Old Testament/Hebrew Bible and New Testament, respectively, will be given during the Michaelmas and Hilary Terms by some of the Faculty’s senior specialists in these areas.

Over the following two terms the Faculty will also provide four classes on the prescribed texts concerning Abraham (Genesis 12–25: Hilary Term) and four on Jesus (the Gospel of Luke: Trinity Term). Your College will additionally arrange a course of eight (2×4) tutorials, usually scheduled in the Hilary Term.

The paper will be assessed by three-hour examination at the end of the Trinity Term. Textual gobbets for comment will be drawn from eight specific chapters in the prescribed texts: Genesis 15–17 and 22; Luke 9, 15–16 and 22.

Follow the links below for additional information:

 
Schedule of New Testament Lectures and Text Classes

The following is a list of the New Testament topics covered during lectures in the Michaelmas Term.

For lecture handouts, where available, follow the links that will be provided here during the course of the term.

Michaelmas 2023: New Testament

Week Lecturer Topic
1 Dr  Marshall A Survey of the New Testament
2 Prof. Downs From Jesus to the Written Gospel
3 Dr. Muir From Mark to Matthew
4 Dr. Muir Luke, Acts and History
5 Dr. Muir John and the Son of God
6 Dr. Muir The Life and Letter of Paul
7 Dr. Muir Worship from Hebrews to Revelation
8 Dr. Muir The Two-Testament Bible as Christian Scripture

All eight lectures will be be given in person at the Exam Schools, 10 AM on Thursdays in the Michaelmas Term.

Lecture recordings will only be available if requested in advance on behalf of students identified with a documented Student Support Plan.

You should also plan to attend the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible lectures: both series of lectures, tutorials, and the associated text classes in the next two terms, are relevant to the Examination for this paper.

Text Classes

Trinity Term: Luke 9, 15-16, 22.

Also note for the Hilary Term: Genesis 15-17, 22

 
rev. 09/2023
1101: Suggested Tutorial Topics

 

OT 1                      What are the goals and achievements of Genesis 12-25?

OT 2                      Why are there different sources preserved in the Pentateuch?

OT 3                      Why was Abraham chosen?

OT 4                      How are covenant and faith understood in Genesis?

NT 1                     What are the aims, setting and sources of Luke’s Gospel and Acts?

Bock, Darrell L. 2012. A Theology of Luke and Acts. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Green, Joel B. 1995. The Theology of the Gospel of Luke. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Levine, Amy-Jill, ed. 2002. A Feminist Companion to Luke. London: Sheffield Academic Press.

Neyrey, Jerome H, ed. 1991. The Social World of Luke-Acts: Models for Interpretation. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson.

Parsons, Mikeal C. 2007. Luke: Storyteller, Interpreter, Evangelist. Peabody: Hendrickson.

Squires, John T. 2006. “The Gospel according to Luke” in The Cambridge Companion to the Gospels. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Shillington, V. George. 2007. An Introduction to the Study of Luke-Acts. T & T Clark Approaches to Biblical Studies. London/New York: T & T Clark.

 

NT 2                     Prophet, healer martyr, Lord: Who is Jesus for Luke?

Bock, Darrell L. 2012. A Theology of Luke and Acts. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Buckwalter, Douglas. 1996. The Character and Purpose of Luke’s Christology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Gaventa, Beverly Roberts and Richard B. Hays, eds. 2008. Seeking the Identity of Jesus. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

Green, Joel B. 1995. The Theology of the Gospel of Luke. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Henrichs Tarasenkova, Nina. 2016. Luke’s Christology of Divine Identity, LNTS, Bloomsbury.

Johnson, Luke Timothy. 1999. “The Christology of Luke-Acts” in Who Do You Say That I Am?: Essays on Christology. ed. Mark Allan Powell and David R. Bauer. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, p 49-65.

O’Toole, Robert F. 2004. Luke’s Presentation of Jesus: A Christology. Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute.

Rowe, C. Kavin. 2006. Early Narrative Christology: The Lord in the Gospel of Luke. Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter. 

Tuckett, Christopher M. 1999. “The Christology of Luke-Acts” in The Unity of Luke-Acts, ed. Joseph Verheyden. Leuven: University Press, p133-64.

Watson, Francis. 2016. The Fourfold Gospel: A Theological reading of the New Testament Portraits of Jesus. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic.

 

NT 3                     What is the meaning and purpose of Jesus’ death in Luke?

Bock, Darrell L. 2012. A Theology of Luke and Acts. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Brown, Raymond E. 1994. The Death of the Messiah: From Gethsemane to the Grave: A Commentary on the Passion Narratives in the Four Gospels. New York: Doubleday. This is a massive commentary with references to Luke’s passion narrative spread throughout the text (it is also 2 volumes).

Doble, Peter. 1996. The Paradox of Salvation: Luke’s Theology of the Cross. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Garrett, Susan R. 1990. “Exodus from Bondage: Luke 9.31 and Acts 12.1-24,” Catholic Biblical Quarterly (52), p 656-80.

Jipp, Joshua W. 2010. “Luke’s Scriptural Suffering Messiah: A Search for Precedent, a Search for Identity.” Catholic Biblical Quarterly (72).

Kloppenborg, John S. 1992. “Exitus clari viri: The Death of Jesus in Luke,” Toronto Journal of Theology (8), p 106-20.

Marshall, I. Howard. 2011. “The Place of Acts 20.28 in Luke’s Theology of the Cross” in Reading Acts Today: Essays in Honour of Loveday A.C. Alexander. ed. Steve Walton, Thomas E. Phillips, and Lloyd Keith.London: T&T Clark. p 154-70.

Parsons, Mikeal C. 2007. Luke: Storyteller, Interpreter, Evangelist. Peabody: Hendrickson. 

Senior, Donald. 1990. The Passion of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. Collegeville, MN: Glazier.

Sterling, Gregory. 2001. “Mors Philosophi: The Death of Jesus in Luke,” Harvard Theological Review (94), p 383-402.

Tabb, Brian J. 2015. “Is the Lucan Jesus a ‘Martyr’? A Critical Assessment of a Scholarly Consensus,” Catholic Biblical Quarterly (77), p 280-301.

NT 4                     How and why does Luke use the Old Testament?

Barrett, C.K. 1988. “Luke/Acts” in It is Written: Scripture Citing Scripture, ed. D.A. Carson and H.G.M. Williamson, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 231-44.

Fitzmyer, Joseph A. 1998. “The Use of the Old Testament in Luke-Acts” in To Advance the Gospel (2nd ed), Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998.

Green, Joel B. 1994. “The Problem of a Beginning: Israel’s Scriptures in Luke 1-2” Bulletin for Biblical Research 4: 61-85.

Kimball, Charles A. 1994. Jesus’ Exposition of the Old Testament in Luke’s Gospel. JSNTsup 94. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.

Litwak, Kenneth D. 2005. Echoes of Scripture in Luke-Acts: Telling the History of God’s People Intertextually. London:T&T Clark.

Moyise, Steve. 2010. Jesus and Scripture: Studying the New Testament Use of the Old Testament. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic.

Pao, David W. and Eckhard J. Schnabel. “Luke” in Beale, G.K. and D.A. Carson, eds. Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.  251-414.

Porter, Stanley E. 2006. “Scripture Justifies Mission: The Use of the Old Testament in Luke-Acts” in Hearing the Old Testament in the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.104-126.

Rowe, C. Kavin. 2006. Early Narrative Christology: The Lord in the Gospel of Luke. Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter. 

New Testament Papers in Years 2 and 3

New Testament Papers in Years 2 and 3

So you’ve enjoyed the first-year Introduction to the New Testament and you’re thinking it could be fun to do a bit more next year?  Great! We’ve put together this guide as a starting point to think about a possible progression through years 2 and 3 of your degree.  There is a choice of advanced New Testament papers, the compulsory dissertation, and a variety of options for further study of the biblical languages.

2103   The Gospels (available every year)

3102   Paul and Pauline Tradition (available every year)

You may also like to consider one of the advanced papers. Topics vary and may or may not be repeated in subsequent years. Detailed topics and prescribed texts for these will be announced no later than the Hilary Term of your second year. For this coming year (2018-2019) they include:

3109 New Testament Theology (selected topics)

3110 Study of a New Testament Book

3111 The Afterlife of the New Testament (selected topics)

3310 Varieties of Judaism

The Undergraduate Thesis (3000)

All FHS students write a 12,000-word undergraduate dissertation, which is due on Monday of Week 9 of Hilary Term in your third year. Although you are relatively free to identify a subject on which you would like to write, post-holders and other Faculty members working in the area would be delighted to advise you on a choice of topic relating to the New Testament. Before you get too far into your second year, do make an appointment with one of us to talk this through and discuss possible supervision!

Biblical Languages in Years 2-3

You may well want to pick up one or both of the major biblical languages, whether or not you have had a chance to do so during your first year. Consider the following opportunities:

New Testament Greek

  • Each year there are classes on the prescribed texts in Greek for the Gospels (2103) and Paul (3102) papers. Do come along, whether you’d like to prepare these texts for the exam or just to keep up your interest in Greek.
  • There will be opportunities for further study of prescribed texts in Greek associated with one or more of the advanced papers, especially 3110 “Study of a New Testament Book”. In 2018-2019 this paper will be on Hebrews.
  • Prelim Hebrew students and others without prior knowledge of Greek are more than welcome to contact Dr Cressida Ryan (New Testament Greek Instructor) about joining a relevant beginner’s class in their second year, although it will not be possible to offer beginners’ Greek as one of your eight FHS papers. You do nevertheless have the option of going on to attend language classes on the prescribed texts for FHS New Testament papers and to answer gobbets in Greek.

Biblical Hebrew

  • Prelim Greek students and others without prior knowledge of Hebrew are welcome to contact the Biblical Hebrew Instructor about joining a relevant beginner’s class in their second year, although it will not be possible to offer beginners’ Hebrew as one of your eight FHS papers. You do nevertheless have the option of going on to attend Hebrew tutorials on the prescribed texts for FHS Old Testament papers (including 2102 (The Poetic World of the Hebrew Bible) and where appropriate the Further Studies in The Hebrew Bible papers (3103-3108)) and to answer gobbets in Hebrew.
  • The Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies also offers a variety of beginners’ and intermediate courses in Biblical Hebrew (as well as in Modern Israeli Hebrew and in Yiddish).

Intensive External Courses in Greek and Hebrew

  • A number of organizations in the UK, North America and Israel offer intensive introductory summer courses in Greek, Hebrew and occasionally other cognate ancient languages. If taught well, these can represent a highly effective introduction that would enable you in a short period to acquire sufficient facility to take more advanced language classes. We also recommend intensive Greek and Hebrew courses offered online by BibleMesh.com, as well as the annual Biblical Hebrew Summer School at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies.
  • Please contact one of the relevant language Instructors or post-holders in Biblical Studies for advice.

For further information about New Testament studies at Oxford, please visit www.NTatOxford.com and follow us on Twitter @NT4Ox.

rev 10/2020