PTS Catalogue - Princeton Theological Seminary

Old Testament and New Testament Research Colloquia
As a means to foster collegiality and to promote research, the Department sponsors
research colloquia in both Old Testament and New Testament. Six colloquia
in each subarea occur over the course of the academic year. Participants include
Seminary graduate students (required during residency) and faculty as well as
interested visiting scholars and faculty from the local area. Papers are circulated in
writing, usually two weeks in advance of the colloquium’s meeting. Each paper will
be assigned two respondents. Faculty and students share responsibility for presenting
papers and responses. Students in their first year are expected to give one
response to a paper, while students in their second year will give one paper (often
on a topic the student anticipates exploring in the dissertation).
Topic Statement
In consultation with pertinent faculty members, a student will compose a twopage
statement describing the general topic of the dissertation. This statement
is to be submitted to the Chair of the student’s Residency Committee in time for
consideration by the Department in its February meeting of the student’s second
year. These topic statements are provisional and heuristic, serving both to aid in
the student’s preparation of a thesis proposal in the third year and to guide decisions
about the content of the student’s Comprehensive Examinations (especially
Book-and-Block, Review Essay).
Comprehensive Examinations
Students may sit for Comprehensive Examinations upon successful completion
of all residency requirements and the recommendation of their Residency
Committee. There are a total of five Comprehensive Examinations, which normally
are to be completed by the middle of the third year of graduate work. On occasion,
some part or parts of these examinations may be taken earlier. The nature
and form of the Comprehensive Examinations vary, but in each, the student’s
knowledge and competence in a specified area of study is to be evaluated. The five
exams are as follows:
1. Major language competency
Attainment of competency in a student’s major language will be demonstrated as
prescribed in the following:
exam in New Testament Greek and (ii) in May of the second year, pass an
exam in Septuagint Greek.
pass an exam in Hebrew prose or satisfactorily complete the Accelerated
Hebrew Reading course and (ii) in May of the second year, pass an exam in
Hebrew poetry.
Faculty responsibility for overseeing these exams falls to the Department’s subcommittee
on language study.
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