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.

SOTS was inaugurated at King's College, London on 3 January 1917, in response to a felt need for better public engagement with the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament and greater collegiality among those studying it. 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.

The first President of the Society was William H. Bennett and the first Secretary was Theodore H. Robinson. A new President is elected each year, and over the years many of the most prominent Hebrew Bible / Old Testament scholars of Britain and Ireland have served in this office. The Summer Meeting each year is normally held at the university at which the President of that year teaches. 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).

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

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

Two regular Meetings are normally held each year, a Winter Meeting in the first week of January and a Summer Meeting in the third week of July, at different academic institutions in the United Kingdom or the Republic of Ireland, and consisting of the presentation of academic papers, panel discussions, social events, and a business meeting of the members. 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.

At regular intervals SOTS publishes volumes of essays which aim to provide an overview of the state of the study of the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament at the time of publication, namely 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).

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