The Gospels
Tutorial Questions and Reading Lists
Michaelmas Term 2026
Prof. David Downs (david.downs@keble.ox.ac.uk)
Keble College, De Breyne 204
This Paper
The Gospels paper will introduce students to foundational understanding of the Gospels of Matthew and John as exemplifying early Christianity’s two most influential normative expressions of the Jesus tradition. While offering an introduction to the backgrounds and origins of the gospels, and to leading scholarly theories about literary relationships between them, the primary aim will be to develop familiarity with the historical, critical, theological and interpretative issues raised by the Gospels of Matthew and John in their canonical form. Teaching for this paper will also aim at least selectively to illustrate the gospels’ place within the wider biblical context, and to show how their exegesis and/or reception bears on issues of Christian history, doctrine, and relations with other religious traditions.
Set Texts
Matthew 2–3, 5–9, 17, 26–28 (English); 5–9; 17; 26–28 (Greek)
John 1, 5–6, 8, 11, 17, 19–20 (English); 1; 6; 8:12–59; 19–20 (Greek)
Please find important information below.
- Each week you will write a 2,000–2,500 word essay (no longer than 2,500 words, please) responding to a prompt or question.
- Tutorial essays are not research papers, but are meant to be a thoughtful interaction with primary and secondary sources. Secondary sources should be academically rigorous. If you have questions about a source, please ask.
- Essays are thesis-driven. This means your essay must argue a thesis, rather than simply stating what you have learned or describing what others have said. You should know what you think about the question and by the time you have finished your essay, you should be able to summarise your essay in one sentence. Arguments should be based on the primary texts (e.g., the Gospel of Matthew or the Gospel of John). Secondary texts (i.e., books, articles, or commentaries about primary texts) are used only to help us better understand the primary texts. The secondary sources listed in the bibliography may be consulted, but only after careful consideration of and engagement with the relevant primary texts. Please work hard not to allow your own reading of the primary text(s) to be overshadowed by reliance on scholarly authorities.
- You can use structured headings in your essays if that helps to organise your argument.
- In preparing an essay, please remember that even if a given topic were to surface on the exam, you are not likely to encounter it in exactly the same form. You are strongly encouraged to explore widely around and beyond the reading lists provided in order to get an idea of the subject area and accumulate a useful set of revision notes.
- There is no required citation style, but consistency is required. You may wish to follow a handbook such as the SBL Handbook of Style, 2nd ed. which is standard for biblical scholarship, but do not let citation style take too much of your time. The ideas are more important, but you must state where they are from, whether paraphrased or quoted directly (e.g. Smith, A Plea: Don’t Plagiarise, 47).
- Plagiarism is a very serious offence and will lead to serious disciplinary measures. If it is suspected, your essay will be submitted to Oxford’s Turn-It-In, a plagiarism detecting programme that checks your essay against books, the internet, and other essays in its very wide database. Any instance of plagiarism will be treated seriously and will result, at a minimum, in an informal warning.
- Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) offers opportunities and challenges. The resources and tools from GenAI available to students in the Humanities are changing, and improving, rapidly. Please carefully consult Keble’s report on GenAI as well as the University’s statements:
https://www.keble.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/GenAI-at-Keble.pdf
https://www.ox.ac.uk/students/academic/guidance/skills/ai-study
Please remember that a tutorial essay is a resource designed to help you learn about a topic so that you can participate in an intelligent conversation about it during the tutorial and so that you can employ your knowledge of the topic in an assessed essay or an exam. Merely producing an essay with the use of GenAI helps with neither of those aims. You will be required to discuss your essay with your tutor for about an hour, and if you’ve simply generated the piece using AI, it will be painfully evident in the tutorial that you have not done the requisite work to enable you to have a meaningful conversation.
- If your tutorial meets in the morning (before 12:00 pm), please email your essay to me by 12:00 pm the day before. If your tutorial meets in the afternoon (after 12:00 pm), please email your work to me by 5:00 pm the evening before. Essays received on time will receive written feedback. Late essays will not. If you do not submit an essay before the beginning of the tutorial, you may not attend the tutorial. Essays will not be accepted after the tutorial (there are rare exceptions to this rule such as an illness confirmed by the college nurse or your Director of Studies).
- Please title your file: MT26 week X lastname.docx (e.g. MT26 2 downs.docx).
- Please submit your essays by email and in MS Word or PDF format to receive written feedback. If possible, please use at least a 14-point font and set the spacing at 1.5; this makes the essays easier to read on a tablet (for ageing tutors!).
- When you are given written feedback, it is expected that you will read this feedback. If you make the same errors each week and it is clear you are not reading the written feedback, the detail of the feedback will be reduced.
- Marks may not be assigned to the essays because these can be demoralising, especially early in the term, or lead to complacency. Instead, affirmation and redirection will be provided as needed.
- Tutorials will run for about an hour. Tutorials will take place at Keble College (DB204). Please arrive on time, especially the first week when you may need to ask the porters for directions.
- Tutorials will usually be given in pairs. We will begin with each student giving a 3–5 minute summary of his or her essay. If you have questions, the start of the tutorial is a good time to raise those as they may help to direct the tutorial conversation.
- It is vital that you prepare well and participate actively in discussion as this is the only way the tutorial system can really work.
Hilary Term: Lectures on the Gospel of Matthew, Weeks 1-8
Trinity Term: Lectures on the Gospel of John, Weeks 1-8