Society for Old Testament Study

The Society for Old Testament Study (SOTS) is a learned society, based in the British Isles, of professional scholars and others committed to the study of the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament.

History

SOTS was inaugurated at King's College, London on 3 January 1917, in response to a felt need for better public engagement with the Old Testament and greater collegiality among those studying it.[1] There were 30 original members, but this soon grew to over 100 in the 1920s, and subsequently grew to over 200 in the 1940s, over 300 in the 1950s, and over 400 in the 1960s; membership numbers have been in excess of 500 since the early 2000s. About three-fifths of the members are resident in the British Isles, while two-fifths reside in other parts of the world, primarily in mainland Europe and in the USA.[2]

The first President of the Society was William H. Bennett and the first Secretary was Theodore H. Robinson. On rare occasions a Meeting of the Society has been conducted much further afield: in 1952 a special meeting was held at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, and in 1966 a business meeting was held at the Presbyterian Hospice in Tiberias, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee (as part of a SOTS study tour of the Holy Land).[3][4]

Over its first century of operations, the Society conducted 195 Meetings, at which 1,448 academic papers were delivered, by 687 presenters.[5]

Activities

The Society serves the varying needs of its members for support of their scholarly activities in the study of the Old Testament through such activities as organizing meetings (save during the years of World War 2,[6] commissioning and promoting publications, and representing scholars of the Old Testament on other academic bodies.[7]

Two regular meetings are normally held each year. The summer meeting is normally held in the third week of July and at the university at which the President of that year teaches. The winter meeting in the first week of January is at different academic institutions in the United Kingdom or the Republic of Ireland. A joint meeting with the equivalent Dutch Society, the Oudtestamentisch Werkgezelschap (OTW), is held every three years, alternating between a venue in the British Isles and a venue in the Netherlands.

Membership of SOTS is open to suitably qualified persons, who are normally expected to have knowledge of Biblical Hebrew, and whose applications for membership must be supported by two current members.

A new President is elected each year.

Publications

At regular intervals SOTS publishes volumes of essays which aim to provide an overview of the state of the study of the Old Testament at the time of publication. Examples include The People and the Book (ed. A.S. Peake; Oxford, 1925), Record and Revelation (ed. H.W. Robinson; Oxford, 1938), The Old Testament and Modern Study (ed. H.H. Rowley; Oxford, 1951), Tradition and Interpretation (ed. G.W. Anderson; Oxford, 1979), and Text in Context (ed. A.D.H. Mayes; Oxford, 2000).[8]

The Society has also sometimes commissioned other multi-essay volumes devoted to specific topics, suc as Documents from Old Testament Times (ed. D.W. Thomas; London, 1958), Archaeology and Old Testament Study (ed. D.W. Thomas; Oxford, 1967), Peoples of Old Testament Times (ed. D.J. Wiseman; Oxford, 1973), The World of Ancient Israel: Sociological, Anthropological and Political Perspectives (ed. R.E. Clements; Cambridge, 1989), and SOTS at 100: Centennial Essays of the Society for Old Testament Study (ed. J. Jarick; London, 2017).

The Society sponsors the SOTS Monograph Series,[9] published by Cambridge University Press, and a series of Study Guides to the Old Testament, published by Bloomsbury T&T Clark.[10] Since 1946 it publishes an annual SOTS Book List (appearing also as an issue of the Journal for the Study of the Old Testament),[11] offering short reviews of hundreds of publications in the field of Old Testament studies each year, and it operates a “SOTS Wiki”, providing a reliable source of information about the Old Testament on the Web.

Presidents
  • 2018: Prof R. W. L. Moberly
  • 2017: Professor Paul Joyce
  • 2016: Dr Adrian Curtis
  • 2015: Professor Hans M. Barstad
  • 2014: Professor John Day
  • 2013: Dr Eryl W. Davies
  • 2012: Professor George J. Brooke
  • 2011: Professor John F. A. Sawyer
  • 2010: Professor J. Cheryl Exum
  • 2009: Professor Lester L. Grabbe
  • 2008: Revd Professor John Barton
  • 2007: Professor Philip R. Davies
  • 2006: Professor C. T. R. Hayward
  • 2005: Professor A. Graeme Auld
  • 2004: Professor Hugh G. M. Williamson
  • 2003: Professor Robert P. Gordon
  • 2002: Revd Professor John R. Bartlett
  • 2001: Professor Michael Goulder
  • 2000: Professor Joseph Blenkinsopp
  • 1999: Professor Robert P. Carroll
  • 1998: Mrs Margaret Barker
  • 1997: Dr Rex A. Mason
  • 1996: Professor David J. A. Clines
  • 1995: Professor Gwilym H. Jones
  • 1994: Professor J.C.L. Gibson
  • 1993: Revd R. J. Coggins
  • 1992: Dr Andrew D.H. Mayes
  • 1991: Revd Dr Anthony Gelston
  • 1990: Revd Professor William Johnstone
  • 1989: Professor the Revd Canon John W. Rogerson
  • 1988: Revd Professor Ernest Nicholson[12]
  • 1987: Revd Dr Robert Murray, SJ
  • 1986: Revd Professor Barnabas Lindars, SSF
  • 1985: Revd Professor Ronald E. Clements
  • 1984: Professor W. G. Lambert
  • 1983: Revd Canon Professor J. R. Porter
  • 1982: Revd Professor R. Norman Whybray
  • 1981: Mr Raphael Loewe[13]
  • 1980: Professor D.J. Wiseman
  • 1979: Revd Professor John A. Emerton[14]
  • 1978: Revd Professor William McKane
  • 1977: Professor R.J. Williams
  • 1976: Revd Canon Professor Douglas Rawlinson Jones
  • 1975: Baroness Eileen F. de Ward
  • 1974: Mr D.R. Ap-Thomas[15]
  • 1973: Revd Professor James Barr[16]
  • 1972: Revd Professor Peter R. Ackroyd
  • 1971: Professor Edward Ullendorff[17]
  • 1970: Revd Professor Arthur Sumner Herbert
  • 1969: Revd J.N. Schofield
  • 1968: Very Revd Matthew Black
  • 1967: Most Revd Archbishop Donald Coggan[4]
  • 1966: Revd Principal Gwynne Henton Davies
  • 1965: Professor F. F. Bruce[18]
  • 1964: Revd Professor Bleddyn Jones Roberts
  • 1963: Revd Professor George W. Anderson
  • 1962: Revd Professor H.F.D. Sparks
  • 1961: Professor J. Weingreen
  • 1960: Very Revd Cuthbert Aikman Simpson
  • 1959: Revd Professor John Mauchline
  • 1958: Revd Canon Leonard Elliott Elliott-Binns; Revd Professor Christopher R. North (Acting)
  • 1957: Revd Principal Norman H. Snaith[19]
  • 1956: Revd Professor Aubrey Rodway Johnson[20]
  • 1955: Revd Professor Alfred Guillaume
  • 1954: Revd Professor Norman W. Porteous[21]
  • 1953: Professor D. Winton Thomas
  • 1952: Very Revd Mgr Consultor John M.T. Barton
  • 1951: Professor Samuel H. Hooke
  • 1950: Revd Professor H.H. Rowley
  • 1949: Revd Professor Christopher R. North
  • 1948: Professor Edward Robertson[22]
  • 1947: Revd Father C. Lattey, S.J.
  • 1946: Revd Professor Theodore H. Robinson[6]
  • 1941-45: Revd Principal H. Wheeler Robinson (Acting)
  • 1939-40: Mr Herbert Loewe
  • 1937-38: Mr G.R. Driver
  • 1936: Revd Canon John Battersby Harford
  • 1935: Revd Professor W. Emery Barnes
  • 1934: Revd Professor Adam Cleghorn Welch
  • 1933: Revd Principal W.L. Wardle
  • 1932: Revd Principal W.F. Lofthouse
  • 1931: Revd Professor W.O.E. Oesterley
  • 1930: Dr C.G. Montefiore
  • 1929: Revd Principal H. Wheeler Robinson
  • 1928: Revd Professor Theodore H. Robinson[23]
  • 1927: Revd Canon D.C. Simpson
  • 1926: Revd Professor William Barron Stevenson
  • 1925: Dr Stanley A. Cook
  • 1924: Professor Arthur S. Peake
  • 1923: Revd Canon Professor G.H. Box
  • 1922: Dr George Buchanan Gray
  • 1921: Revd Canon R.H. Kennett
  • 1920: Revd Professor A.R.S. Kennedy
  • 1917-19: Revd Principal W.H. Bennett
gollark: I used to have to live-patch osmarks.tk things from my phone.
gollark: Things could be better, but they are not better. Sad!
gollark: I do not.
gollark: Ah yes, I can totally use my laptop on-the-go and hold it in one hand easily.
gollark: I basically just want a portable web browsing thing with good battery life which can also work as an okay camera/MP3 player/whatever else and have a terminal for occasional fiddling.

References
  1. Clements 2017.
  2. Dell 2017.
  3. Davies 2017.
  4. Bruce, F. F. (1967). "The Society for Old Testament Study, 1917-1967". Expository Times. 78 (5): 147–48. doi:10.1177/001452466707800505.
  5. Clines 2017.
  6. Rowley, Harold Henry (1947). "The British Society for Old Testament Study". Journal of Biblical Literature. 66: xxvii–xxxi.
  7. Rogerson, John. "History of SOTS - The Society for Old Testament Study". The Society for Old Testament Study. Retrieved 2017-02-26.
  8. Curtis 2017.
  9. "Society for Old Testament Study Monographs".
  10. http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/series/tt-clarks-study-guides-to-the-old-testament/
  11. Enslin, Morton S. (1967). "Review of G. W. Anderson (ed.), A Decade of Bible Bibliography (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1967)"". Journal of Biblical Literature. 86 (4): 483. doi:10.2307/3262817. JSTOR 3262817.
  12. Barton, John (2016). "Ernest Wilson Nicholson" (PDF). Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the British Academy. 15: 121–138.
  13. "Professor Raphael Loewe". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 2017-02-26.
  14. "The Revd Professor John Emerton, 1928-2015 | St John's College, Cambridge". St John. Retrieved 2017-03-03.
  15. "The National Library of Wales :: Dictionary of Welsh Biography". yba.llgc.org.uk. Retrieved 2017-02-27.
  16. "SBL Publications". www.sbl-site.org. Retrieved 2017-03-03.
  17. "Professor Edward Ullendorff". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 2017-02-26.
  18. Grass, Tim (2011). F. F. Bruce: A Life. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. p. 229. ISBN 9780802867230.
  19. Anderson, G. W. (1983). "Norman Henry Snaith, 1898–1982". Journal of Semitic Studies. 28 (2): 355–356. doi:10.1093/jss/XXVIII.2.355.
  20. "The National Library of Wales :: Dictionary of Welsh Biography". yba.llgc.org.uk. Retrieved 2017-02-27.
  21. Auld, Graeme (2003-09-12). "The Rev Prof Norman Porteous". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-02-27.
  22. Roberts, Bleddyn J. (1964). "Professor Edward Robertson, D.Litt., D.D. (St. Andrews), Hon. D.D. (Wales), LL.D. (Manchester)". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. 1964 (3/4): 158–160. doi:10.1017/S0035869X00123524. JSTOR 25202797.
  23. "The National Library of Wales :: Dictionary of Welsh Biography". yba.llgc.org.uk. Retrieved 2017-02-27.

Sources
  • Clements, Ronald E. (2017). "The Origins of the Society for Old Testament Study: Cultural, Political and Religious Antecedents". In Jarick, John (ed.). SOTS at 100: Centennial Essays of the Society for Old Testament Study. Library of Hebrew Bible / Old Testament Studies. 650. London: Bloomsbury T & T Clark. pp. 1–23. ISBN 9780567673640.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Dell, Katharine J. (2017). "A Snapshot of SOTS at 100: Collegiality and Diversity in the Membership of the Society for Old Testament Study". In Jarick, John (ed.). SOTS at 100: Centennial Essays of the Society for Old Testament Study. Library of Hebrew Bible / Old Testament Studies. 650. London: Bloomsbury T & T Clark. pp. 137–158. ISBN 9780567673640.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Davies, Eryl W. (2017). "The Society for Old Testament Study: 1917-2017". In Jarick, John (ed.). SOTS at 100: Centennial Essays of the Society for Old Testament Study. Library of Hebrew Bible / Old Testament Studies. 650. London: Bloomsbury T & T Clark. pp. 25–61. ISBN 9780567673640.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Clines, David J. A. (2017). "A Century of SOTS Papers". In Jarick, John (ed.). SOTS at 100: Centennial Essays of the Society for Old Testament Study. Library of Hebrew Bible / Old Testament Studies. 650. London: Bloomsbury T & T Clark. pp. 97–113. ISBN 9780567673640.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Clements, Ronald E. (2017). "The Origins of the Society for Old Testament Study: Cultural, Political and Religious Antecedents". In Jarick, John (ed.). SOTS at 100: Centennial Essays of the Society for Old Testament Study. Library of Hebrew Bible / Old Testament Studies. 650. London: Bloomsbury T & T Clark. pp. 1–23. ISBN 9780567673640.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

Further reading
  • Jarick, John, ed. (2017-01-12). SOTS at 100: Centennial Essays of the Society for Old Testament Study. Library of Hebrew Bible / Old Testament Studies. 650. London: Bloomsbury T & T Clark. ISBN 978-0-567-67364-0.
  • Mayes, A. D. H., ed. (2000). Text in Context: Essays by Members of the Society for Old Testament Study. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198263913.
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