Trends in Hebrew Bible Scholarship

The contrast between ‘Hebrew Bible’ and ‘Old Testament’ as alternative ways of naming the collection of ancient Jewish writings accepted by both Jews and Christians as authoritative scripture can be seen as a shorthand signal of diametrically opposed attitudes to their interpretation. On the one hand there are many newer approaches that situate these books in the social and historical context of the ancient world and bracket out their traditional religious claims. Out of many developments of this kind, the article discusses especially reception history, an influential movement in the humanities in general and currently trending in HB/OT study. On the other hand there is in some circles, and especially among those with an interest in philosophical theology, a conservative move back behind even modern critical study to the reassertion of a traditional belief in the divine inspiration of the Bible. Both trends, however, are concerned with making the HB/OT relevant to readers today, avoiding obscurantism and ‘dusty scholarship’.