Doctor of Hebrew Literature

Admission Requirements

For admissions, see The Graduate School.

Degree Requirements

Courses
In addition to courses required of all students in The Graduate School, 30 graduate credits beyond the MA are required, to be selected from the following list:

• Two research seminars with major papers;
• Two advanced text courses;
• Two courses in biblical law, religion, and history;
• One course in medieval exegesis;
• One course in a Semitic language other than Hebrew;
• Two courses in electives in the area of specialization. Students may be asked to audit courses, and students must display a basic familiarity with the particulars of biblical literature implied by the traditional term bekiut, to be established by examination.
  

Paper
Shortly before the oral comprehensive examination, a candidate is required to write one ten-page paper in either history, religion, canon, or text-criticism. The candidate is asked to identify a major problem in one of these areas and discuss it with special attention being paid to the history of the problem and how critical scholars today might approach a solution.

Comprehensive Examination
Students will take two comprehensive examinations as follows: 

• an examination on the text of the Hebrew Bible: may be taken in smaller sections during the course of study;
• a two-hour oral examination in which a candidate will be tested in depth on the secondary literature as outlined in the prescribed reading list.

Dissertation
Candidates are required to write a dissertation in the field of specialization.