Hebrew Bible

Prerequisites

Students in the HB area division may concentrate in one of three areas: Ancient Near Eastern Studies; Exegesis, Theology, and Hermeneutics of the Hebrew Bible; and Early Judaism. For the HB program itself special prerequisites have to be satisfied either by transcript, by examination, or by completing additional courses. These prerequisites are:

Intermediate Hebrew
Greek

6 courses (24 semester units) of study in the Hebrew Bible (including critical historical study under different approaches, exegetical work, history of Israel, and theology of the Hebrew Bible).

Course work

HB area courses are divided into two sets: the first set must be taken by all students, whereas the second is structured according to the student's field of concentration. The field of concentration is not to be understood as excluding the other areas, but rather represents a special emphasis made within the context of the whole. The minimum requirement may need to be increased for an adequate preparation for the Qualifying Examinations and the dissertation.

Courses required of all students (4 courses/16 units)
1 seminar in Aramaic*
1 seminar in an Ancient Near Eastern language other than Aramaic
1 seminar in Archaeology
REL 363: Major Interpreters in the Study of Religion (meets the CGU Humanities requirement)

* Students who have had Aramaic and would like to place out of the Aramaic core requirement may request an Aramaic proficiency examination.

Fields of Concentration (at least 8 courses/32 units)*
4 seminars in the field of concentration
2 seminars each in the other two HB fields

* Students concentrating in Early Judaism are required to take the Method in Text Criticism seminar; those concentrating in Exegesis, Theology, and Hermeneutics of the Hebrew Bible are recommended to do so as a course in their minor.

Three major papers are required of all HB Ph.D. students. A 40-page limit for the major papers has been established; those in excess of 40 pages (exclusive of bibliography) will not be accepted. One paper is to be written within each of the Hebrew Bible division's fields of concentration. In essence, a major paper is to be a methodological test case; however, in consultation with the pertinent professor, flexibility and latitude are permitted. Consultation with faculty is expected in any case. Arrangement may be made with individual professors to submit expanded course papers for simultaneous acceptance as major papers. Commencement of work on any major paper is recommended only after completion of the first year of course work. The major paper form, to be signed by the professor, is to be picked up from and returned to the School of Religion Office (example in the appendix). Receipt of a form for each paper indicates fulfillment of the requirement.

Hebrew Language Proficiency Examination

At the beginning of each semester a Hebrew Language Proficiency Exam will be given. Because this exam is used as a diagnostic tool, students must attempt the examination upon entry to the program and are required to attempt the examination each semester (Fall and Spring) until it is passed. The written portion of this exam will be drawn from BHS and consists of:

- Translation of five selections (of approximately 12-15 verses each) from representative genres (prose text, legal text, poetic/hymnic text, prophetic text, wisdom text) throughout the Hebrew text. In order to pass the examination, students are required to provide an adequate translation of at least 6 verses per section. Examinations falling short of this quantitative standard will not be passed.

The oral portion will require the student to be able to read aloud from the text with fluency (modern Israeli, i.e. Sephardic, pronunciation is preferred).

Qualifying Examinations

Before qualifying exams can be scheduled, the major papers and the Hebrew Language Proficiency Exam must be completed. Students should take qualifying examinations no later than one year (12 months) after completion of course work, and only during the fall and spring semesters.There are four 4-hour written exams. Students will take two exams in their field of concentration and one exam in each of the other two areas. The examinations will test the student's understanding of the fields and ability to work with original texts.

Students are strongly urged to discuss expectations for the qualifying exams with individual professors early in their program. Although in many cases there will be an obvious correlation between the subject matter dealt with in a course and that included in a qualifying exam, the exams are not viewed as being based on the course work only.

The student is required to submit in writing a dissertation proposal of no more than three pages at the time of the oral qualifying exam. This proposal must refer to the state of previous research on the proposed subject, the reason for a new project, the method(s) used, the materials included in the study, and those excluded from it.

The student is responsible for scheduling the written and oral examinations according to the regular procedures of the School of Religion (see the Department Secretary).

Dissertation and Final Oral Exam (Defense)

The topic of the dissertation is to be determined in consultation with the advisor. The dissertation may conceivably be an extension of a major paper.

In order to make it possible for a candidate to graduate either in May or in January, the following scheduling pattern in the semester preceding any of the following dates is necessary:

The defense of the dissertation will be held no later than one month before the official date for submission of its final copy to the Registrar's office.
Since the application for the date of defense must be submitted (at least) three weeks before the defense, the three regular committee members must have reached a consensus before this time that the dissertation is ready for the defense (i.e., no later than seven weeks before the institutional deadline for the submission of the final copy to the Registrar's office).
The consensus of the regular committee members before these dates requires that they must have had in hand a draft of the dissertation, complete and in tentatively final shape, no later than one month before they must declare their consensus (i.e., no later than eleven weeks before the institutional deadline for the submission of the final copy to the Registrar's office).

Failure to meet these deadlines means that graduation at the end of the projected semester will not be possible.

Especially, submission of the draft of the dissertation at the latest necessary date and not earlier implies the possibility that a consensus on its defensibility by the regular committee members is not reached one month later and that the scheduling process towards graduation breaks down and must be rolled over into the next semester. In such a case, the candidate should be able to upgrade her/his dissertation within schedule.

However, in the case of a roll-over from one semester to the next it is necessary that all members of the committee have again in hand the upgraded draft of the complete dissertation, and within schedule.

The scheduling for the defense of dissertations whose candidates do not depend on graduation in a specific semester are subject to the guidelines found above in this section.

Any exception to these policies depends on both a demonstrable emergency beyond the candidate's control and the availability of all members of her/his committee. As usual, it is subject to written petition before any date pertaining to scheduling and to written approval by all regular members of her/his committee.

The Oral Defense

The student is responsible for scheduling the oral defense of their dissertation in accordance with the regular procedures of the Department of Religion (see Department Secretary).

Hebrew Bible Courses Offered Recent Hebrew Bible PhDs

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