ICAS-Accredited Degree Program
Doctor of Philosophy in Old Testament Studies
Ph.D. credential
Explore the stories, promises, prayers, and wisdom of the Old Testament and their place in the Christian faith.
Doctor of Philosophy in Old Testament Studies: Your Grant Price
Applications are free. Eligible applicants receive their admission and Grant decision before any one-time program fee is requested.
Published tuition
$24,900.00
$649.00 Registry & Assessment Fee
$149
Doctoral Degree
2026 Life in Christ Grant is active
Ministry Experience, Evaluated Against Academic Standards.
Documented prior learning may be considered when it aligns with program outcomes; every credit decision follows academic review.
Program Overview
About this program
Doctoral study in Old Testament Studies is for people who will teach this material and be asked hard questions about it. Three quarters of the Christian Bible is a library written in Hebrew by and for a small ancient nation, and most Christians know perhaps eight stories from it. This ICAS-accredited Kingdom of Life University program covers the rest: the legal material, the royal histories, the poetry, the wisdom books that contradict each other on purpose, and the prophets nobody preaches.
Competency-Based Ministry Assessment
Recognition of demonstrated learning in theology and ministry
Experienced ministry practitioners demonstrate competencies developed through years of service, theological study, and continuing learning. The assessment connects that learning with the published outcomes of the Doctor of Philosophy in Old Testament Studies through biblical understanding, theological reflection, research, and ministry judgment.
70
Audited questions in this pathway bank
30
Questions drawn for each sitting
60 minutes
Time available for the knowledge component
24 hours
Interval before reassessment
Theological knowledge and degree outcomes
- Published bank title
- Old Testament Studies - Doctoral Competency-Based Ministry Assessment
- Credential
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Old Testament Studies
- Question construction
- 14 pathway subject-bank sources contribute 5 questions each, producing the complete 70-question bank.
How completion is reported
- The knowledge component contributes 40% and assessed ministry experience contributes 60% to one weighted result.
- The reported result is no lower than 80%, matching the 80% degree pass mark.
- Reassessment draws a fresh question set and is included in program access, with no additional fee or limit on sittings.
- The integrated assessment covers the published degree plan; separate course assessments, a capstone paper, and a dissertation defense are not required.
Program Objectives
What you will achieve
Integrate advanced theological inquiry and ministry judgment in service to the church and its mission
Situate any Old Testament book within Israel's history, literature, and covenant theology
Read Hebrew narrative, law, poetry, and prophecy according to the demands of each form
Assess what Ancient Near Eastern parallels establish about a biblical text and what they do not
Articulate the Old Testament's own witness before asking what the New Testament makes of it
Learning Outcomes
Skills and competencies you will develop
Synthesize doctoral-level theological evidence, research judgment, and ministry wisdom for faithful leadership
Interpret a Hebrew narrative or oracle with attention to its structure, setting, and rhetorical aim
Compare the theological judgements that Kings and Chronicles render on the same events
Evaluate a claimed Ancient Near Eastern parallel on the evidence rather than on its familiarity
Teach an Old Testament text in a way that respects its place in Israel's story
Career Opportunities
Where this degree can take you
Bible teacher
Pastor or teaching elder
Old Testament researcher
Theological curriculum writer
Major Subject Areas
The fourteen subjects you study, and the ones the ministry assessment draws on
Foundational and Major-Core Subjects
Four foundations every pathway shares, then four that belong to this field.
Doctoral Seminar: Biblical Interpretation
How a Hebrew text works and how it is misread: narrative that withholds judgement, law embedded in story, poetry that argues by repetition rather than by proposition.
Doctoral Seminar: Old Testament Theology
The theological centre of the program. Covenant from Noah to David, the tension between promise and land, and the competing accounts scholars give of what holds the Old Testament together.
Doctoral Seminar: New Testament Theology
What the apostles did with Israel's Scriptures — the citations, the assumed context, the readings that look impossible until you see the interpretive convention behind them.
Doctoral Seminar: Christian Doctrine
Christian doctrine as it stands on Old Testament ground: creation, election, covenant, and the God who is described there before any of it was systematised.
Doctoral Seminar: Pentateuch and Covenant
The Torah's narrative arc and its covenants with Noah, Abraham, Israel, and David, examined for how promise, law, and land function together in Israel's self-understanding.
Doctoral Seminar: Historical Books of Israel
Joshua through Kings and the Chronicler's parallel account: conquest, monarchy, division, and exile, and the theological judgement each historian renders on the same events.
Doctoral Seminar: Hebrew Poetry and Psalms
The Psalter's forms and the craft of Hebrew verse, including parallelism, imagery, and acrostics, alongside the liturgical and personal uses the psalms were shaped for.
Doctoral Seminar: Wisdom Literature
Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes in conversation and in tension, reading Israel's wisdom tradition as a sustained argument about order, suffering, and the limits of what can be known.
Specialization Subjects
Six more that take the field into the places it actually gets used.
Doctoral Seminar: Major Prophets
Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel in their eighth- to sixth-century settings, attending to call narratives, oracles against the nations, and the shape each book gives to judgement and restoration.
Doctoral Seminar: Minor Prophets
The Book of the Twelve read both individually and as a deliberate collection, from Hosea's marriage imagery to Malachi's disputations, with attention to its editorial unity.
Doctoral Seminar: Ancient Near Eastern Backgrounds
Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Ugaritic, and Hittite material set beside the biblical text: creation accounts, law codes, treaties, and psalms, and what the comparison does and does not settle.
Doctoral Seminar: Old Testament Theology and the Canon
How the Old Testament's own theology holds together, and how canon order, textual history, and Christian reading have shaped what the church hears in it.
Doctoral Seminar: Spiritual Formation and Christian Vocation
Praying the psalms of imprecation, sitting with Job's friends, and the formation that comes from a canon which does not tidy up its own difficulties.
Doctoral Seminar: Integrative Theology and Ministry
One Old Testament book or theme taken from Hebrew text through to a written argument that engages the secondary literature and reaches a defensible conclusion.
Admission Requirements
What you need to apply
- Master's degree in theology, ministry, or a relevant field from an accredited or recognized institution
- Official graduate transcripts demonstrating advanced academic preparation
- Research statement identifying a proposed area of theological or ministry inquiry
- Scholarly or ministry-focused writing sample
- Current curriculum vitae documenting relevant research, church, or ministry leadership experience
- Three ministry or academic recommendations and a faculty interview
Degree Completion Requirements
Requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy
Graduation Requirements
- Complete at least 60 doctoral semester credits in the approved degree plan
- Pass the Competency-Based Ministry Assessment for the degree
- Satisfy every doctoral-core, research-methods, specialization, elective, and Competency-Based Ministry Assessment requirement group
- Integrate theological knowledge with assessed ministry experience under the published result-weighting policy
- Recognize demonstrated learning against every published degree-plan requirement
Culminating Experience
Demonstrate doctoral-level theological synthesis, research judgment, and ministry leadership through Competency-Based Ministry Assessment, combining theological knowledge with assessed ministry experience.
Credit Distribution
| Requirement Area | Credits | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Advanced Doctoral Core | 24 | 8 courses. Doctoral theory, disciplinary foundations, and scholarly leadership. |
| Research Design and Methods | 12 | 4 courses. University-wide doctoral preparation in quantitative, qualitative, measurement, and research-ethics competencies. |
| Area of Specialization | 15 | 5 courses. Focused doctoral inquiry supporting the learner's research agenda. |
| Doctoral Elective | 6 | 2 courses. Any doctoral-level major course from any school that is not already part of this degree plan. |
| Competency-Based Ministry Assessment | 3 | 1 course. Integrated doctoral theological knowledge and assessed ministry experience, recognizing demonstrated learning across the published degree plan. |
| Total Degree Credits | 60 | All requirements must be completed within the approved degree plan. |
Program Details
Program Length
Self-Paced
Self-Paced Learning
Total Credits
60 credit hours
Up to 30 Transfer Credits
Published Degree Plan
20 courses
Across 5 required curriculum groups
Format
Flexible Study
Assessment Format
Competency-Based Ministry Assessment
Selected Degree
Doctorate
School
School of Theology and Ministry
Institutional Status
ICAS Accredited
Ready to Begin Your Accredited Old Testament Studies Degree?
Applying costs nothing, and the work you have already done may count. Have a look at what this pathway asks for before you decide.