New Testament and Early Christian Studies (research)

Specialisation of: Classics and Ancient Civilisations (research)
Degree: Master of Arts in Classics and Ancient Civilisations (research)
Mode of Study: Full-time
Duration: 2 year
Start date: September, February
Language of instruction: English
Location: Leiden
Croho/isat code: 60039
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Studying the New Testament and Early Christianity throws a very unique light upon the multicultural world of Late Antiquity. In this specialisation you combine in-depth textual and archaeological research on the world of the New Testament, emerging Christianity and the shaping of classical Judaism.

Starting as a Palestinian Jewish “sect”, Christianity from the outset came into contact and conflict with religious traditions of many sorts, making it an ideal case for the study of how a social and religious minority formed its identity through reflection and adaptation, and how it eventually transformed the Graeco-Roman world to lay the foundation of almost two millennia of Western culture.
Texts and material culture are equally in focus; you study base texts in the original language, do research on current positions in scholarship, reach your own conclusions through class discussion and guided self-study, and can even take part in an archaeological excavation in Galilee (www.kinneret-excavations.org).

Prof. Joan Booth

Joan Booth

“It extends the connection-making process beyond Greece and Rome to the ancient civilizations of the Near-East.”

“Classics, and especially the specialisation Classics within the Research Master Classics and Ancient Near Eastern Civilisations, is about making connections – between Greek and Latin, language and culture, text and image, source and reception, ancient and modern ways of thinking, speaking, believing and behaving.

Almost uniquely within a single programme, the Classics programme offers the opportunity of extending the connection-making process beyond classical Greece and Rome to the ancient civilizations of the Near-East.

The intersection and interaction of East and West around the Ancient Mediterranean and its hinterlands in a particular historical period is the focus one of the common courses (Cultural Contact in the Hellenistic World), while the similarities and divergences in the scholarly approach to the texts of each culture lie at the heart of another (The Commentary). The prospect is an exciting symbiosis of specialised perspective and bigger picture.”