Classical Hebrew Studies (Taught)

The information provided on this page was correct at the time of publication (November 2025). For complete and up-to-date information about this course, please visit the relevant University of Oxford course page via https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate/courses/ucas-listings?course=mst-classical-hebrew-studies.

The MSt in Classical Hebrew Studies is a taught course for those with intermediate Biblical Hebrew, offering training in texts, history, and literature, with optional papers typically including areas such as Aramaic, Ugaritic, and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Course structure
The teaching takes two main forms. Firstly, there are classes on the specified texts and on advanced Hebrew language throughout the year, which you are strongly recommended to attend as a matter of priority. There may also be classes on your optional subjects, depending on what they are (Aramaic and Septuagint, for instance, are both taught in this way). It is important to prepare for each class hour in advance, to enable you to make good progress over the year. Secondly, you will receive individual supervision, usually for an hour each week, for which you are expected to prepare written work - usually an essay - on the basis of recommended reading. Teaching for such subjects as history and literature is wholly conducted in this way, while you will also be given practice in the proper way in which to answer questions on specified texts. Taken together, you should expect around six to eight contact hours per week during the first two terms, and slightly fewer in the third term to allow for revision time. Classes are sometimes shared with those on other similar courses, and specialist teaching is provided by a number of different lecturers.

There are also seminars that you should attend on a regular basis, in particular the weekly Hebrew Bible/Old Testament seminars. These are invaluable for learning about various methodologies employed in the field, but they also provide a venue for social and academic interaction with students and lecturers in adjacent fields.

During the course there are two vacations of six weeks each, during which you will be expected to keep working full time, with modest breaks for Christmas and Easter. You will be given guidance about specific projects to be tackled, but will be advised to go back over the texts and other topics studied in the previous term in order to consolidate with wider reading, filling in gaps, and so on. It is also helpful, if you are in a position to do so, to undertake preparatory work during the summer before you begin. If you have the opportunity to discuss with your potential teachers at least some of the texts that you hope to study, you will find that you derive far more benefit from the classes if you have been able to prepare them as far as you are able in advance.

Formative essays will be set in order to prepare for the essay component included in most of the examined papers (and especially for the compulsory paper on history and literature). Essay questions and reading lists will be issued by the lecturer for the particular course, and students are expected to submit the essays in good time before the scheduled meetings with the lecturer to discuss the essay, in sessions known in Oxford as tutorials. You will normally have three to four tutorials for each paper, at times agreed with the lecturer concerned. However, the compulsory biblical texts paper and the two optional papers are each taught mostly in small classes meeting at least once a week. You will be expected to prepare carefully the texts in advance of these classes: this is in order to derive maximum benefit from the teaching provided and to make steady progress in the subject. Such preparation for classes and essay tutorials will form most of your study time.

Numbers of students on the course are very small (1–2 per year) and so teaching is tailored according to the needs and interests of individual students.