A new, free online publication has now become available for Christians interested in more advanced Old Testament study, 'The Journal for the Evangelical Study of the Old Testament.'
Here is an excerpt from their website: Journal for the Evangelical Study of the Old Testament (JESOT) is a peer-reviewed journal devoted to the academic and evangelical study of the Old Testament. The journal seeks to fill a need in academia by providing a venue for high-level scholarship on the Old Testament from an evangelical standpoint. The journal is not affiliated with any particular academic institution, and with an international editorial board, online format, and multi-language submissions, JESOT cultivates and promotes Old Testament scholarship in the evangelical global community. The journal differs from many evangelical journals in that it seeks to publish current academic research in the areas of ancient Near Eastern backgrounds, Dead Sea Scrolls, Rabbinics, Linguistics, Septuagint, Research Methodology, Literary Analysis, Exegesis, Text Criticism, and Theology as they pertain only to the Old Testament. The journal will be freely available to the scholarly community and will be published bi-annually online. Hard copies will be produced by request. JESOT also includes up-to-date book reviews on various academic studies of the Old Testament.'
Dr. Eugene H. Merrill, Distinguished Professor of OT at Dallas Seminary, and Supervisor at ABR's excavations at Khirbet el-Maqatir since 1996, published an article in their inaugural issue, entitled: Deuteronomy and de Wette: A Fresh Look at a Fallacious Premise (offsite PDF link). This article engages in debunking various aspects of the Documentary Hypothesis pertaining to the book of Deuteronomy. Dr. Merrill writes:
The premise to be re-evaluated here is that Deuteronomy, in part or in its entirety, was the product of pious scribes of the Divided Monarchy period, who, recipients of certain oral and perhaps fragmentary written traditions, were intent on delivering Israel from political, social, and religious disintegration. They therefore integrated their sources and composed the book, attributing it to Moses and thus investing it with authority necessary to address in most specific terms the circumstances that threatened the existence of the covenant community...The purpose of this essay is once more to raise objections to these tenets on historical, geographical, cultural/sociological, and theological grounds and to place back into the hands of Moses the text which itself testifies to his authorship.
There are few scholars of Dr. Merrill's caliber who also wholeheartedly embrace the Scriptures as the infallible and inerrant Word of God. We hope this publication will serve serious students and teachers well. By mentioning it on our website, ABR does not automatically endorse every article published therein. We do hope, however, that this journal will move beyond many of the other OT publications that are deeply secular in their presuppositions and worldview.
