A bifolium with drop title containing twenty theses, including ten theses of conjectures about Demosthenes (two theses), Aeschines (one thesis), Dinarchus (one thesis), Aristophanes (five theses), and Lysias (one thesis), seven theses on the field of Roman antiquities, one on the text of Tertullian’s De Baptismo (thesis 18), one on the education of theological students (thesis 19), and one on high school education (thesis 20). Concerning the disputations and the authorship of these theses, see 1857.01.

The subject matter of the final three theses suggests that Kuyper himself may have been the author (see 1980.05 and 1981.02). Thesis 18 puts forward an alternative reading of a passage in which Tertullian describes Jacob’s blessing of his grandsons in Genesis 48:14 (see 1980.05). Thesis 19 argues that it “is completely indispensable that theological students, who are after all going to be exegeting the New Testament, be taught about things from Roman antiquity that provide a better understanding of the set-up of a Roman province at the beginning of the common era.” Thesis 20 argues that one “must disagree with the very learned Burger who believes that the reading of the New Testament should be reintroduced into the gymnasia.”

Litt. Hum. Cand.: Kuyper passed his candidacy examination in classical literature, summa cum laude, on April 29, 1858.