This Congress Volume comprises not only the main lectures of the XVIth I.O.S.O.T. Congress, held in Oslo 1998, but also the interventions at the two panels on "Intertextuality and the Pluralism of Methods" and on "The Hebrew Bible and History." Both the main lectures and the panelists' interventions focus on current methodological problems and study central questions in the present study of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament in its environment.

Doing for the Old Testament what Kittel-Friedrich does for the New, this major, multivolume reference work discusses in depth all the key Hebrew and Aramaic words of the Old Testament. Stressing meaning, each word-study moves from narrow, everyday senses of words toward more significant theological concepts.

This Congress Volume comprises not only the main lectures of the XVIth I.O.S.O.T. Congress, held in Oslo 1998, but also the interventions at the two panels on "Intertextuality and the Pluralism of Methods" and on "The Hebrew Bible and History". Both the main lectures and the panelists' interventions focus on current methodological problems and study central questions in the present study of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament in its environment.

This volume publishes twenty-three papers given by invitation at the thirteenth Congress of the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament, which was held at Leuven from 27 August until 1 September 1989 under the Presidency of C. Brekelmans. The articles cover a range of subjects relevant to the Old Testament: the Pentateuch (E.W. Nicholson, W.H. Schmidt, E. Blum, J. Van Seters, A. de Pury), the historical books (C. Brekelmans, Helga Weippert, R.D. Nelson, W. Thiel, Sara Japhet, K.-F. Pohlmann), the prophets (C. Hardmeier, D.L. Petersen, W.A.M. Beuken, R.P. Carroll, P.-M. Bogaert), the Psalms (J. Trublet, N. Füglister), textual criticism (E. Tov), the Targums (L. Díez Merino), the development of Israelite religion (N.P. Lemche), the Babylonian New Year Festival and the Old Testament (K. van der Toorn), and the Apocryphon of Jannes and Jambres (A. Pietersma).

The standard theory of Old Testament canon formation describes a literary process of linear development in three successive stages. In spite of intermittent criticism, the theory has continued to find its place in textbooks and introductions. Here Stephen B. Chapman marshals all of the important counter-arguments to the theory and proposes a fresh way to conceive of the canonical process, based upon evidence internal and external to the biblical text.He argues against the standard theory by exposing its internal inconsistencies and critiquing its methodological presuppositions, especially its assumptions about human agency and the nature of 'canonization.' Using Charles Altieri's literary application of Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor's theory of the self, the author redescribes the canonization of the Old Testament as a process of 'strong evaluation', whose goal was to provide a religious framework for the evaluation of personal and communal alternatives, rather than the imposition of ideology. He redefines the Old Testament 'canon' as the theological 'grammar' formed by the coordination of discrete scriptures into a coherent collection, but retaining their plurality as integral to canonicity.Stephen B. Chapman also demonstrates that the status of the prophetic writings prior to their canonization has remained an intractable problem for the standard theory. He shows how nomistic assumptions about canonization have sustained the view that the prophetic corpus was always subordinate to the Pentateuch, even though this view is at odds with the exegetical evidence. By detailed analysis of 'canon-conscious' editing within the Pentateuch and the prophetic corpus, he illustrates how collections of Law and Prophets developed simultaneously and mutually influenced each other.

A thorough study of quotation within ancient and modern literatures is the background for this new approach to alleged quotations within the prophetic writings. The common claim that specific verbal parallels result from the conscious repetition of the words of a predecessor is beset by difficulties. After examining quotation in non-prophetic (ancient Near Eastern, early Jewish, Old Testament wisdom and narrative, and modern Western) literatures, Schultz proposes a new model for interpreting verbal parallels that utilizes several criteria for identifying quotation and combines diachronic with synchronic analysis. He then applies this model to five representative verbal parallels involving the book of Isaiah. This book illustrates how an awareness of the versatility of quotation facilitates a more accurate interpretation of verbal parallels, and at the same time calls for greater caution in employing them in support of various theories.