At periodic intervals the Society has commissioned collections of studies which aim to give an overview of the state of the discipline at the time of publication. Accordingly, the following surveys of the field of Old Testament Study have been published:
- The People and the Book: Essays on the Old Testament, ed. Arthur S. Peake (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1925)
- Record and Revelation: Essays on the Old Testament by Members of the Society for Old Testament Study, ed. H. Wheeler Robinson (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1938)
- The Old Testament and Modern Study: A Generation of Research. Essays by Members of the Society for Old Testament Study, ed. Harold H. Rowley (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1951)
- Tradition and Interpretation: Essays by Members of the Society for Old Testament Study, ed. George W. Anderson (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979)
- Text in Context: Essays by Members of the Society for Old Testament Study, ed. Andrew D.H. Mayes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000)
Several volumes devoted to specific topics have also been published:
- Documents from Old Testament Times, ed. D. Winton Thomas (London: Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1958; republished Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2005)
- Archaeology and Old Testament Study: Jubilee Volume of the Society for Old Testament Study 1917-1967, ed. D. Winton Thomas (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967)
- Peoples of Old Testament Times, ed. Donald J. Wiseman (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973)
- The World of Ancient Israel: Sociological, Anthropological and Political Perspectives. Essays by Members of the Society for Old Testament Study, ed. Ronald E. Clements (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989)
- SOTS at 100: Centennial Essays of the Society for Old Testament Study, ed. John Jarick (London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2017): further information on this volume is given below.
Certain other works have also appeared under the Society’s aegis:
- Grammar of Palestinian Jewish Aramaic, by William B. Stevenson (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924; 2nd edition, 1962; 1st edn republished Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 1999)
- Old Testament Essays [Papers read at the ‘International Meeting’, Oxford 1927], ed. Theodore H. Robinson (London: Griffin, 1927)
- The Genius of Hebrew Grammar [SOTS Presidential Address of 1928], by Theodore H. Robinson (London: Oxford University Press, 1928)
- A History of Israel, by Theodore H. Robinson and William O.E. Oesterley (2 vols.; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1932)
- Studies in Old Testament Prophecy [Festschrift for Theodore H. Robinson], ed. Harold H. Rowley (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1950)
- Wisdom in Israel and in the Ancient Near East [Festschrift for Harold H. Rowley], ed. Martin Noth and D. Winton Thomas (Leiden: Brill, 1955)
- Promise and Fulfilment [Festschrift for Samuel H. Hooke], ed. Frederick F. Bruce (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1963)
- The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, ed. David J.A. Clines (9 vols; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1993-2016)
Several short histories of the Society have been published at particular milestones:
- SOTS: A Short History, 1917-1950, by G. Henton Davies (1950)
- SOTS: A Short History, 1917-1967, by Dafydd R. Ap-Thomas (1967)
- SOTS: A Short History, 1917-1992, by John W. Rogerson (1992): this short history may be consulted here
- ‘SOTS: 1917-2017’, by Eryl W. Davies, in the SOTS at 100 volume (2017): see further information on this volume just below
SOTS at 100
To mark the occasion of the Centenary of SOTS in 2017, the Society commissioned a celebratory volume, SOTS at 100: Centennial Essays of the Society for Old Testament Study, which was published by Bloomsbury T&T Clark. The essays look back over those first hundred years of activities and developments, taking stock of various aspects of the Society at that point in time, and look forward to further developments in this field of study. The essays, in turn, investigate the antecedents of the Society’s foundation in 1917, narrate the unfolding history of the Society over 100 years, present a record of the Society’s meetings and officers and sundry activities during that time, consider the trends in Old Testament Study as seen in the papers that have been read at meetings and in the Society’s publications over the years, analyse aspects of the guild of Old Testament scholars as seen in SOTS membership statistics and surveys, and finally consider the prospects for the future of the Society itself and of the study of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible more broadly.
The individual essays are:
- ‘The Origins of the Society for Old Testament Study: Cultural, Political and Religious Antecedents’, by Ronald E. Clements
- ‘The Society for Old Testament Study: 1917-2017’, by Eryl W. Davies
- ‘A Timeline of SOTS’, by John Jarick
- ‘A Century of SOTS Papers’, by David J.A. Clines
- ‘From People and Book to Text in Context: Volumes that Speak Volumes’, by Adrian Curtis
- ‘A Snapshot of SOTS at 100: Collegiality and Diversity in the Membership of the Society for Old Testament Study’, by Katharine J. Dell
- ‘The Way of the Future? Into Our Second Century’, by Paul M. Joyce
Among reviews of the work, the following may be especially noted:
“Members of SOTS will want to have a copy of this important volume, and everyone interested in the study of the Old Testament in Britain and Ireland will learn much from it about the history of the discipline.” (John Barton, in SOTS Book List/Journal for the Study of the Old Testament)
“This book presents a fascinating and accurate lens into biblical scholarship in the past one hundred years… Frankly, if I taught in a doctoral program, I would assign this book in the first semester of students’ coursework, to provide them with a readable and efficient overview of our discipline. The field of Old Testament/Hebrew Bible studies owes a great deal to the work of the scholars involved in SOTS. This book is one more example of the service they provide to the discipline worldwide.” (Corinne Carvalho, Review of Biblical Literature)
Copies of the volume may be purchased through the Bloomsbury website.