New Testament MA (joint degree)

Program Overview

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New Testament MA (joint degree) 2025 entry

Overview

The New Testament MA (joint degree) is a four-year program offered by the University of St Andrews. While St Andrews does not offer New Testament as a single Honours degree, students can take New Testament in combination with other subjects as part of a joint Honours degree.

Entry Requirements

The University offers different entry requirements, depending on the student's background. The subject with the higher entry requirements determines the grades needed. Students will also need to meet any further subject-specific entry requirements as outlined on their pages.

Do I need to have studied this subject before?

No previous knowledge of Greek or biblical studies is required to apply.

Course Details

The MA (Hons) New Testament portion of the four-year joint degree course is run by the School of Divinity. The study is designed to introduce students to the complexities and wonders of reading New Testament texts: language, contexts, content, methods, and hermeneutics (a reading of ancient texts in a modern world).

First Year

• Jesus and the Gospels: considers the historical contexts of the New Testament texts; then studies the Gospels with a view to determining the particular interests of their authors, and with a view to assessing their portraits of Jesus in relation to the historical Jesus.
• New Testament Greek 1: introduces the essential grammar, morphology, and vocabulary of New Testament Greek which will continue into New Testament Greek 2.

Second Year

• Christ, Paul, and the Origins of Christianity A (English Texts or Greek Texts): examines the literature and developing theology of the New Testament, paying particular attention to the issue of unity and diversity, and to the themes of Christology and soteriology.
• New Testament Greek 2: continues from New Testament Greek 1 and introduces the second half of the essential grammar, morphology, and vocabulary of New Testament Greek.

Honours

If students take New Testament in their third and fourth years, they will take one compulsory module and choose from a variety of advanced modules ranging from reading the Hebrew Bible to studying Hebrew prose and poetry.

• The Bible Through the Ages: History, Theology, and Hermeneutics: takes students through the history of the Bible and its interpretation from the formation of the canon to postmodernism considering, for each time period, what the Bible was for the people of the time, and how people encountered and interpreted the Bible.

Other modules being offered at Honours level include:

• Readings in Early Christian Greek Texts
• Johannine Literature and Theology: English Text
• Johannine Literature and Theology: Greek Text
• Epistle to the Hebrews: English Text
• God and Morality: Faith and Philosophy in the Scottish Enlightenment
• Prophetic Books
• Hebrew Readings
• Creation and Chaos in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East
• Themes and Texts in Christian-Buddhist Dialogue

In the fourth year, students also undertake a 10,000-word dissertation on a topic of their choice. The School provides significant support for the dissertation, with a breakdown of the assessment into different stages and a programme of seminars to assist in the development of advanced research and communication skills.

Teaching

Teaching in the first and second years is mainly by lectures (10 to 100 students), supplemented by regular small-group tutorials (8 to 12 students).

At Honours level, greater emphasis is put on individual study and on students taking a major role in preparing for and conducting seminars (5 to 15 students).

When not attending lectures, tutorials and workshops, students will be expected to continue learning independently through self-study. Typically, this will involve:

• working on individual and group projects
• undertaking research in the library
• preparing coursework assignments and presentations
• preparing for examinations

All sub-honours modules are typically assessed by 50% coursework and 50% written examinations. At Honours level, at least 50% assessed work is coursework, with some modules including no exam element at all.

Examinations are held at the end of each semester during a dedicated exam diet with revision time provided beforehand.

The School aims to provide feedback on every assessment within three weeks to help students improve on future assessments.

Undergraduates at the University of St Andrews must achieve at least 7.0 on the St Andrews 20-point grade scale to pass a module. To gain access to Honours-level modules, students must achieve the relevant requisites as specified in the policy on entry to Honours and in the relevant programme requirements.

Fees

• Scotland: £1,820
• England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland: £9,535
• Channel Islands, Isle of Man: £9,535
• EU and overseas: £31,670

More information on tuition fees can be found on the undergraduate fees and funding page.

Joint Honours degrees

Students can take New Testament MA (joint degree) as part of a joint Honours degree in which they will take core modules of their chosen subjects.

Careers

A degree that includes divinity gives students the opportunity for significant intellectual and personal development, and they will acquire a wide range of transferable skills. Those who have studied biblical studies or theology have learnt a range of skills including:

• textual
• historical
• analytical
• creative
• interpersonal

Graduates are in demand with employers who need rigorous but flexible thinkers with a broad knowledge base and an understanding of people and their religious and social contexts.

Recent graduates from the School of Divinity have, for example, become:

• journalists with the national and religious press
• a trainee manager at a national bank
• an art gallery assistant
• a solicitor
• a theatre director
• a college principal
• a business consultant
• a social worker
• a wine taster

Graduates have also gone on to postgraduate degrees in related areas here and at other top universities in the UK and across the world.

The Careers Centre offers one-to-one advice to all students as well as a programme of events to assist students to build their employability skills.