Studies on the Language and Literature of the Bible: Selected Works of J. A. Emerton. Edited by Graham Davies and Robert Gordon

Abstract

This is an important collection of essays, because they present the work of a scholar who, in addition to his outstanding accomplishments as an editor and reviewer, reached the highest distinction within Old Testament studies as a writer of learned articles rather than of monographs. Emerton seems particularly to have gravitated towards article writing because he only wanted to publish what was original and convincing and did not believe in wasting words—a feature which makes his fluid and varied prose such a pleasure to read. The editors have selected 48, approximately one-third, of Emerton’s essays from a period spanning half a century (1955–2005). Aside from the two opening essays on ‘Comparative Semitic Philology and Hebrew Lexicography’ (1997) and ‘The Hebrew Language’ (2000) respectively, the essays are grouped under six headings: Hebrew Lexicography and Grammar (seven articles); Textual Notes on the Old Testament (15 articles); Hebrew and North-West Semitic Epigraphy (six articles); Old Testament Issues (nine articles); New Testament and Early Christianity (six articles); Bibliography and History of Scholarship (three articles). The range of the essays is broad, but the presentation in one volume allows us to detect recurring patterns, some of which are even obvious in the titles, such as the frequent references to textual problems: ‘Some Difficult Words in Genesis 49’ (1968); ‘The Syntactical Problem of Psalm xlv. 7’ (1968); ‘Notes on Some Problems in Jeremiah v 26’ (1981); ‘Some Problems in Psalm 88:16’ (2004); ‘A Problem in Proverbs 3:35’ (2004). Other recurring themes are harder to detect, especially as there is, regrettably, no subject index. However, some topics occur in over half of the essays, including references to etymology, to emendation of the Masoretic text, and to G. R. Driver, who taught Emerton.