STARTING in 1925, selected members of the Society for Old Testament Study have at various intervals taken stock of the state of their discipline by producing a volume of essays. This sixth volume, describing developments since 2000, reflects the dramatic expansion of the range of Old Testament study in many previously unimagined directions, most particularly in the interdisciplinary nature of much current research. Further, the full publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls has greatly enhanced their widespread importance to scholarship. Nor should the growth of reception history be underestimated. All 26 essays conclude with extensive bibliographies.
The editor’s introduction judiciously summarises the issues present in current Old Testament research — not least the appropriateness of the use of the term “Old Testament” itself — and the essays themselves witness to the vigour and excitement of contemporary Old Testament scholarship.
Canon Anthony Phillips is a former headmaster of The King’s School, Canterbury.
Understanding the Hebrew Bible: Essays by Members of the Society for Old Testament Study
John Barton, editor
OUP £119
(978-0-19-284578-8)
Church Times Bookshop £107.10