Tradition and Interpretation

THIS collection of essays is the successor of The People and the Book ( 1925), edited by A. S. Peake, Record and Revelation ( 1938), edited by H. Wheeler Robinson, and The Old Testament and Modern Study ( 1951), edited by H. H. Rowley. Like these earlier volumes, it seeks to give a general account of the present position in the various branches of Old Testament study. The essays are all by members of the Society for Old Testament Study, including two distinguished Honorary Members, Professor Henri Cazelles and Professor Walther Zimmerli.

Various difficulties have delayed the production of the volume, which is now published considerably later than was originally planned. In expressing his regrets and apologies for the protracted delay, the Editor wishes to put on record the fact that the bulk of the material was in his hands by the end of 1974.

Thanks are due to the Revd. A. Graeme Auld, M.A., B.D., PH.D., Lecturer in Hebrew and Old Testament Studies in the University of Edinburgh, and to Mlle Claudine M. Dauphin, M.A., PH.D., F.S.A.(Scot.), sometime Tweedie Fellow of the University of Edinburgh, who translated the essays by Professor Zimmerli and Professor Cazelles respectively, and to the Revd. Martin Reid, who compiled the Indexes.

The Society is indebted to the Oxford University Press for undertaking the publication of the volume. The Editor wishes to express his own appreciation of the help and patient consideration which he has received from the Publishers. He also wishes to record his gratitude to the Society for inviting him to edit this volume and to the contributors for their cooperation.

G. W. A.

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