Ph.D. in Biblical Exegesis

Academic Prerequisites

Depending on their academic credentials, the students may be accepted to either the short or the long track.

a) Short Track: Those who have an MA in Biblical Exegesis (MA-BE) may be accepted to the short track with 48-unit course work.

b) Long Track: Those who have an MA in Theological Studies (MA-TS) and have taken Biblical Hebrew I & II (6 units) and Biblical Greek I & II (6 units) may be accepted to the long track with 60-unit course work.

PhD-BE Modern Language Requirement

This program requires a reading knowledge of two modern languages often used in biblical studies besides English. These must be fulfilled before writing the dissertation. The language requirement must be fulfilled before writing the dissertation.

The requirement may be satisfied either by {a} taking language courses of two semesters each language in any university/college, provided that at least a grade of B is attained; or by {b} passing a proficiency test administered by LST in any or all of these languages. The test, lasting for 30 minutes, consists in translation of a page of German, or French, or Spanish, with the aid of a dictionary.

PhD-BE Course Work

a) Short Track: 2 Biblical Theology courses (6 units); 8 OT and/or NT Exegesis courses (24 units); 2 seminar courses (6 units); 2 reading courses (6 units); lectio coram (6 units).

b) Long Track: Biblical Hebrew III & IV (6 units); Biblical Greek III & IV (6 units); Biblical Hermeneutics (3 units); History of Israel (3 units); Textual Criticism (3 units); 1 Biblical Theology course (3 units); 8 OT and/or NT Exegesis courses (24 units); 1 seminar course (3 units); 1 reading course (3 units); lectio coram (6 units).

PhD-BE Lectio Coram

The lectio coram serves as the comprehensive exam of the doctorate program. It is a public lecture at the end of the doctoral course work, in which a particular book of the Bible is assigned to the student as an area of research during the semester.  Two days (48 hours) before the public lecture, passages from that book are assigned as the topic of a one-hour public lecture. At the end of the lecture, a panel of three professors takes turn to ask questions, each for about 15 minutes. The public may also ask questions. The basis for the grade will be the average of the scores given by the three professors.

PhD-BE Dissertation

The doctoral dissertation can be on any topic in biblical exegesis or biblical theology that the student would propose and defend before a panel of three professors and a mentor. After the topic has been approved by the panel, the doctoral student may now proceed to writing the dissertation chapter by chapter. The student must seek the guidance of his/her mentor all throughout the writing of the dissertation. Each chapter must be approved by the mentor one at a time. When the whole dissertation is finished and meets the approval of the mentor, the school assigns a second reader to evaluate whether the dissertation is ready for public defense. The dissertation is defended in public before a panel of three professors who make judgment on the merit of the dissertation. Publication of the dissertation is a requirement.

The procedures to be followed for the dissertation proposal, writing, and public defense are the same as those for the PhD-Th or STD dissertation.