MPhil in New Testament Studies

Please consult the official ‘Grey Book’ (Exam Regulations) as well as the current Faculty Handbook and course pamphlet (links to be updated by September). There is also a selection of recent exam papers on OXAM.
 
The course normally begins with eight intensively taught weekly tutorials on the Gospels and Acts every Friday in the Michaelmas Term, each requiring a submitted essay (2,500-3,000 words) or oral presentation. This will be followed by a corresponding series of weekly tutorials for the Epistles paper in Hilary Term. Both papers are formally examined in the Trinity Term, following at least one revision tutorial.  In some years the order of papers may be reversed to accommodate tutors on research leave.
 
The dissertation (max 30,000 words) and three formally assessed essays (max 5,000 words each) are then supervised by individual arrangement, ideally to be agreed with the course director in the Hilary Term of Year 1. Topics are formally proposed and approved by the Graduate Studies Committee in the Trinity Term of Year 1 before submission of the completed work in the Trinity Term of Year 2.
The two examined papers for the degree are taught through tutorial classes as follows.
 

A1: The Gospels and Acts (usually Michaelmas Term, Year 1)

Weekly tutorials are normally held at 12 noon on Fridays in Prof. Bockmuehl’s room (WL2) at Keble, beginning in First Week. Essays are due 36 hours in advance. This paper is taught jointly with the MSt in New Testament.
Prescribed Texts in Greek: Mark 1-16 and Luke 9-24. Students will cover the prescribed texts in the Greek reading classes provided, but should make sure to supplement this exegetically by working through the texts on their own with the help of critical commentaries on the Greek text.
 
Tutorial Essays: See below for essay titles and initial suggested reading for each essay topic. Many articles and books are available electronically via SOLO. You are encouraged to range beyond the bibliographies provided.

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Introduction to Tutorials, Essays, Gobbets, Collections, Exams.

To prepare, please read through the prescribed texts in Greek (or English).

MPhil NT A1.1: Did Mark fail or succeed?

  • Becker, Eve-Marie. 2017. The Birth of Christian History: Memory and Time from Mark to Luke-Acts. New Haven: Yale University Press.
  • Black, C. Clifton. 2023. Mark’s Gospel: History, Theology, Interpretation. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
  • Bond, Helen K. 2020. The First Biography of Jesus: Genre and Meaning in Mark’s Gospel. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
  • Croy, N. Clayton. 2003. The Mutilation of Mark’s Gospel. Nashville: Abingdon Press.
  • Filannino, Francesco. 2021. The Theological Programme of Mark: Exegesis and Function of Mark 1:1,2-15. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.
  • Gathercole, Simon J. 2022. The Gospel and the Gospels: Christian Proclamation and Early Jesus Books. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
  • Hengel, Martin. 2000. The Four Gospels and the One Gospel of Jesus Christ: An Investigation of the Collection and Origin of the Canonical Gospels. Trans. J. Bowden. London: SCM Press.
  • Kealy, Sean P. 2007. A History of the Interpretation of the Gospel of Mark. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press.
  • Kirk, Alan. 2023. Jesus Tradition, Early Christian Memory, and Gospel Writing: The Long Search for the Authentic Source. Grand Rapids Eerdmans.
  • Kok, Michael J. 2015. Gospel on the Margins: The Reception of Mark in the Second Century. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.
  • Mader, Heidrun E. 2025. Mark and Paul: Comparing the Oldest Extant Literary Works and Theological Ideas of Early Christianity. Paderborn: Brill | Schöningh.
  • Monier, Mina. 2025. When Jesus Rose Early: Studies on the Text and Paratexts of Mark’s Ending.Leiden/Boston: Brill.
  • Pérez i Díaz, Mar. 2020. Mark, a Pauline Theologian: A Re-Reading of the Traditions of Jesus in the Light of Paul’s Theology. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.
  • Vette, Nathanael. 2022. Writing with Scripture: Scripturalized Narrative in the Gospel of Mark. London etc.: T&T Clark International.
  • Rodriguez, Jacob A. 2023. Combining Gospels in Early Christianity: The One, the Many, and the Fourfold. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.
  • Watson, Francis. 2022. What is a Gospel? Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
  • Williams, Rowan. 2014. Meeting God in Mark. London: SPCK. 
 

MPhil NT A1.2: What does Matthew's Jesus want?

  • Barber, Michael Patrick. 2023. The Historical Jesus and the Temple: Memory, Methodology, and the Gospel of Matthew. Cambridge etc: Cambridge University Press.
  • Boxall, Ian. 2015. Discovering Matthew: Content, Interpretation, Reception. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
  • Broadhead, Edwin K. 2017. The Gospel of Matthew on the Landscape of Antiquity. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.
  • Breen, Jerry D. 2025. Resolving the Tension of Jesus’s Mission in Matthew’s Ancient Biography. London etc: T&T Clark.
  • Cohen, Akiva. 2016. Matthew and the Mishnah: Redefining Identity and Ethos in the Shadow of the Second Temple’s Destruction. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.
  • Dalton, Andrew D. 2024. “Fulfilled Israel According to Matthew’s Plerosis Paradigm.” Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.
  • Deines, Roland. 2021. “Jesus and the Torah according to the Gospel of Matthew.” In The Gospel of Matthew in its Historical and Theological Context, 295-328. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.
  • Eubank, Nathan. 2013. Wages of Cross-Bearing and Debt of Sin: The Economy of Heaven in Matthew’s Gospel. Berlin etc.: De Gruyter.
  • Hamilton, Catherine Sider. 2016. The Death of Jesus in Matthew: Innocent Blood and the End of Exile. SNTS Monograph Series 166. Cambridge etc.: Cambridge University Press.
  • Kampen, John. 2019. Matthew within Sectarian Judaism. New Haven: Yale University Press.
  • Konradt, Matthias. 2014. Israel, Church, and the Gentiles in the Gospel of Matthew. Trans. K. Ess. Waco: Baylor University Press.
  • Konradt, Matthias. 2022. Christology, Torah, and Ethics in the Gospel of Matthew. Ed. W. Coppins. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.
  • Kvalbein, Hans. 2000. “Has Matthew Abandoned the Jews?” In The Mission of the Early Church to Jews and Gentiles, 45-62. Ed. J. Ådna and H. Kvalbein. WUNT 127. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.
  • Oliver, Isaac W. 2013. Torah Praxis after 70 CE: Reading Matthew and Luke-Acts as Jewish Texts. WUNT 2:355. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.
  • Quarles, Charles L. and Charles Nathan Ridlehoover, eds. 2023. Jesus as Teacher in the Gospel of Matthew. Library of New Testament Studies 644. London etc.: T&T Clark International. 
  • Runesson, Anders and Daniel M. Gurtner, eds. 2020. Matthew within Judaism: Israel and the Nations in the First Gospel. Early Christianity and its literature 27. Atlanta: SBL Press.
  • Runesson, Anders. 2016. Divine Wrath and Salvation in Matthew: The Narrative World of the First Gospel. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.

MPhil NT A1.3: For Luke, in what sense is Jesus ‘the Lord’ and why does he die?

  • Becker, Eve-Marie. 2017. The Birth of Christian History: Memory and Time from Mark to Luke-Acts. New Haven: Yale University
  • Brown, Raymond E. 1994. The Death of the Messiah: From Gethsemane to the Grave. A Commentary on the Passion Narratives in the Four Gospels. 2 vols. New York: Doubleday.
  • Friedeman, Caleb T. 2023. The Revelation of the Messiah: The Christological Mystery of Luke 1-2 and Its Unveiling in Luke-Acts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Giambrone, Anthony. 2017. Sacramental Charity, Creditor Christology, and the Economy of Salvation in Luke’s Gospel. WUNT 2:439. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.
  • Green, Joel B. 2021. Discovering Luke: Content, Interpretation, Reception. London: SPCK.
  • Gustafsson, Daniel. 2022. Aspects of Coherency in Luke’s Composite Christology. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.
  • Henrichs Tarasenkova, Nina. 2016. Luke’s Christology of Divine Identity. LNTS 542. London: Bloomsbury.
  • Patella, Michael. 1999. The Death of Jesus. The Diabolical Force and the Ministering Angel: Luke 23,44-49.Cahiers de la Revue Biblique 43. Paris: J. Gabalda.
  • Rowe, Christopher Kavin. 2006. Early Narrative Christology: The Lord in the Gospel of Luke. Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter.
  • Scaer, Peter J. 2005. The Lukan Passion and the Praiseworthy Death. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press.
  • Senior, Donald. 1989. The Passion of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. Wilmington: M. Glazier.
  • Reardon, Timothy W. 2021. The Politics of Salvation: Lukan Soteriology, Atonement, and the Victory of Christ. London: Bloomsbury.
  • Smith, David Anthony. 2023. Luke and the Jewish Other. London: Routledge.
  • Sterling, Gregory. 2001. “Mors philosophi: The Death of Jesus in Luke.” Harvard Theological Review 94: 383-402.
  • Tyson, Joseph B. 2010. The Death of Jesus in Luke-Acts. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.
  • Wilson, Benjamin R. 2016. The Saving Cross of the Suffering Christ: The Death of Jesus in Lukan Soteriology. BZNW 223. Berlin etc: de Gruyter.

MPhil NT A1.4: How closely linked is Luke’s Gospel with Acts?

See also the bibliography for A.1.3.

  • Alexander, Loveday. 1993. The Preface to Luke’s Gospel: Literary Convention and Social Context in Luke 1.1-4 and Acts 1.1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Cowan, J. Andrew. 2020. The Writings of Luke and the Jewish Roots of the Christian Way. London/New York: T&T Clark International.
  • Crabbe, Kylie. 2019. Luke/Acts and the end of history. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter.
  • Oliver, Isaac W. 2021. Luke’s Jewish Eschatology: The National Restoration of Israel in Luke-Acts. Oxford etc.: Oxford University Press.
  • Smith, Steve. 2017. The Fate of the Jerusalem Temple in Luke-Acts. London: Bloomsbury.
  • Whitaker, Robyn J. 2017. “From Cross to Ascension: The Surprising Locus of Salvation in Luke-Acts.” Australian Biblical Review 65: 47-60.
  • Gregory, Andrew F. and Christopher Kavin Rowe, eds. 2010. Rethinking the Unity and Reception of Luke and Acts. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.
  • Gregory, Andrew. 2003. The Reception of Luke and Acts in the Period Before Irenaeus. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2:169. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.
  • Johnson, Luke Timothy. 2005. “Literary Criticism of Luke-Acts:  Is Reception-History Pertinent?” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 28: 159-62.
  • Lane, Thomas J. 1996. Luke and the Gentile Mission: Gospel Anticipates Acts. Frankfurt/New York: P. Lang.
  • O’Toole, Robert F. 1984. The Unity of Luke’s Theology: An Analysis of Luke-Acts. Good News Studies 9. Wilmington: Glazier.
  • Parsons, Mikeal C. and Richard I. Pervo. 1993. Rethinking the Unity of Luke and Acts. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.
  • Riesner, Rainer. 2006. “Once More: Luke-Acts and the Pastoral Epistles.” In History and Exegesis: New Testament Essays in Honor of Dr. E. Earle Ellis for His 80th Birthday, 239-58. Ed. S.-W. Son. New York: T & T Clark.
  • Roth, Dieter T. 2008. “Marcion’s Gospel and Luke: The History of Research in Current Debate.” Journal of Biblical Literature 127: 513-27.
  • Tannehill, Robert C. 1991-94. The Narrative Unity of Luke-Acts: A Literary Interpretation. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Fortress Press.
  • Tyson, Joseph B. 2006. Marcion and Luke-Acts: A Defining Struggle. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.
  • Verheyden, J., ed. 1999. The Unity of Luke-Acts. Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium 142. Leuven: Leuven University Press and Peeters.

MPhil NT A1.5: “For John’s Gospel, God died that we might be made gods.” Discuss.

  • Bauckham, Richard J. 2005. “Monotheism and Christology in the Gospel of John.” In Contours of Christology in the New Testament 148-66. Ed. R. N. Longenecker. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
  • Belle, Gilbert van, J. G. Van der Watt, and P. J. Maritz, eds. 2005. Theology and Christology in the Fourth Gospel. Leuven: Leuven University Press/Peeters.
  • Belle, Gilbert van. 2007. The Death of Jesus in the Fourth Gospel. BETL 200. Leuven/Dudley, MA: Leuven University Press/Peeters.
  • Brown, Raymond E. 1994. The Death of the Messiah. 2 vols. New York: Doubleday.
  • Byers, Andrew J. 2017. Ecclesiology and Theosis in the Gospel of John. Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series 166. Cambridge etc: Cambridge University Press.
  • Coloe, Mary L. 2011. “John’s Portrait of Jesus.” In The Blackwell Companion to Jesus, 64-80. Ed. D. R. Burkett. Oxford/Malden: Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Boccaccini, Gabriele and Benjamin E. Reynolds, eds. 2018. Reading the Gospel of John’s Christology as Jewish Messianism: Royal, Prophetic, and Divine Messiahs. Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity 106. Leiden/Boston: Brill.
  • de Boer, Martinus C. ed. 1996. Johannine Perspectives on the Death of Jesus. CBET. Kampen: Kok Pharos.
  • Dennis, John. 2006. “Jesus’ Death in John’s Gospel.” Currents in Biblical Research 4: 331-63. 
  • Frey, Jörg. 2018. The Glory of the Crucified One: Christology and Theology in the Gospel of John. Ed. W. Coppins and C. Heilig. Baylor-Mohr Siebeck Studies in Early Christianity. Waco: Baylor University Press. 
  • Köstenberger, Andreas J. and Scott R. Swain. 2008. Father, Son, and Spirit: The Trinity and John’s Gospel. Nottingham/Downers Grove: Apollos/InterVarsity Press.
  • Lincoln, Andrew T. 2000. Truth on Trial: The Lawsuit Motif in the Fourth Gospel. Peabody: Hendrickson.
  • McGrath, James F. 2001. John’s Apologetic Christology: Legitimation and Development in Johannine Christology. Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series 111. Cambridge etc.: Cambridge University Press.
  • Schnelle, Udo. 2008. “Cross and Resurrection in the Gospel of John.” In The Resurrection of Jesus in the Gospel of John,127–51. Ed. C. R. Koester and R. Bieringer. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.
  • Senior, Donald. 1991. The Passion of Jesus in the Gospel of John. Collegeville: Liturgical Press.
  • Sousa, Mathew E. 2021. Sin, the human predicament, and salvation in the Gospel of John. London: Bloomsbury. 
  • Thompson, Marianne Meye. 2001. The God of the Gospel of John. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
  • Vistar, Deolito V. 2020. The Cross-and-Resurrection: The Supreme Sign in John’s Gospel. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck. 
 

MPhil NT A1.6: “Johannine Christianity cares more about the pre-existence of Jesus than about his humanity.” Discuss.

 

  • Anderson, Paul N. 2011. The Riddles of the Fourth Gospel: An Introduction to John. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.
  • Brown, Raymond E. 2003. An Introduction to the Gospel of John. Ed. F. J. Moloney. ABRL. New York:Doubleday.
  • Byers, Andrew J. 2022. “Johannine Readings of the Johannine Gospel: Reception Theology and Practice in John’s Epistles.” In Gospel Reading and Reception in Early Christian Literature, 190-214. Ed. M. N. Pierce et al. Cambridge etc.: Cambridge University Press.
  • Culpepper, R. Alan. 2014. “The Relationship between the Gospel and 1 John.” In Communities in Dispute: Current scholarship on the Johannine Epistles, 95-122. Ed. R. A. Culpepper and P. N. Anderson. Atlanta: SBL Press.
  • Frey, Jörg. 2011. “How Could Mark and John Do Without Infancy Stories? Jesus’ Humanity and his Divine Origins in Mark and John.” In Infancy Gospels: Stories and Identities, 189-215. Ed. C. Clivaz et al. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.
  • Frey, Jörg et al., eds. 2021. Perspektiven zur Präexistenz im Frühjudentum und frühen Christentum. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.
  • Kobel, Esther. 2011. Dining with John: Communal Meals and Identity Formation in the Fourth Gospel and its Historical and Cultural Context. Leiden: Brill. Esp. Appendix pp. 301-16: “Jesus on a Diet?”
  • Köstenberger, Andreas J. 2009. A Theology of John’s Gospel and Letters. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
  • Kunath, Friederike. 2017. “Jesus’s Preexistence and the Temporal Configuration of the Gospel of John.” Early Christianity 8, no. 1: 30-47.
  • Loader, William R. G. 2017. Jesus in John’s Gospel: Structures and Issues in Johannine Christology. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
  • Jensen, Matthew D. 2012. Affirming the Resurrection of the Incarnate Christ: A Reading of 1 John. Cambridge etc.: Cambridge University Press.
  • Menken, Maarten J. J. 2018. “The secessionists of the Johannine epistles and docetism.” In Docetism in the early church: the quest for an elusive phenomenon, [125]-41. Ed. J. Verheyden et al. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.
  • Schnelle, Udo. 1992. Antidocetic Christology in the Gospel of John: An Investigation of the Place of the Fourth Gospel in the Johannine School. Trans. L. M. Maloney. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.
  • Thompson, Marianne Meye. 2019. “The Human Jesus in the Gospel of John: The Word made Flesh.” In Portraits of Jesus in the Gospel of John, 17-30. Ed. C. R. Koester. Library of New Testament Studies 589. London etc.: T&T Clark International.

 

 

A2: Epistles and Revelation (Hilary Term, Year 1)

Prescribed Texts in Greek: Galatians and Hebrews (Nestle-Aland 28th edn); Ignatius’ Letter to the Magnesians (in The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations, ed. & trans. Michael W. Holmes (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007), 202-213).
 
7 tutorials with Prof. Downs; essay titles and reading lists are here (TBC).