Special Issue IOSOT 2013 - Books and Journals

Vetus Testamentum IOSOT (2013) 1
Vetus
Testamentum
brill.com/vt
Preface
On the occasion of the twenty-first conference of the International Organization
for the Study of the Old Testament, Brill Publishing and the editorial board of
Vetus Testamentum are pleased to set the present collection before the learned
public: ten articles published in the journal between 1950 and today, reprinted
without change from the original. Most of them have been seminal in one way
or another, and all, we think, continue to repay close study. The selection was
made so as to illustrate the diversity of subject matter, scholarly approach, and
geographic provenance that characterizes Vetus Testamentum.
Beyond the principle of publishing only innovative research of the highest
scholarly level, the animating spirit of Vetus Testamentum is to bring scholars of
different origins and backgrounds into discussion with one another. The days
of the hegemony of one school—German historical criticism during much of
the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries—are gone. They are in danger
of being followed by a period of balkanization of scholarly approaches. Vetus
Testamentum was designed to check the risk of fragmentation by providing an
international forum where one speaks not to one’s own circle, but to knowledgeable
scholars around the world. The process of peer review put into place
at Vetus Testamentum over the last few years reinforces this dynamic.
On the brink of important logistical and political changes—the growing
attraction of electronic publishing, and the evolution toward “open access”—
the editorial board hopes to secure the core mission of Vetus Testamentum.
The journal could not exist without its readers and its authors. Let the present
volume be an invitation to read, but also to submit, excellent articles in the
future, as in the past.
Jan Joosten
Editor-in-chief
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2013 DOI: 10.1163/15685330-12341127