From 11 - 15 of August, the Old Testament faculty members at Tyndale Theological Seminary (including myself) attended the International Organisation for the Study of the Old Testament (IOSOT) meeting at the Humboldt-University of Berlin. Every three years it meets to foster Old Testament scholarship on an international and highly academic level. Attending IOSOT brought the opportunity to engage with leading scholars in the field while presenting one’s own research projects and ideas.
What does it look like to attend such an academic conference? First of all, there are many lectures, papers, and talks one can attend. Scholars present their newest findings and their most challenging ideas. In a way, it is a good opportunity to get a feeling for what is currently moving the field. What questions are people asking? What approaches are being taken in the study of the Old Testament? All three of us presented papers ourselves in our respective research sessions.
Second, there is lots of eating. IOSOT was a great opportunity to meet different colleagues and have lunch or dinner with them. Especially in an international city like Berlin, there are so many food options available. Also, the university hosted several receptions for conference participants.
Third, there is a lot of talking. One gets to share his story, his background, his research interests, and his opinions on the latest (or older) developments in the field repeatedly. While this can be a tiring process, it is also a great opportunity to learn from others and their perspective on the Old Testament.
As an evangelical scholar, I was fascinated to observe a trend towards more humility during the conference. People are more careful in claiming what we can actually know on the basis of historical research alone. This continues some of the developments already taken up during the IOSOT conference Zurich three years aso. While critical scholars of the past often spoke of the “assured results” of research, exegetes today realize how shaky interpretation is if it is built on the foundation of methodological naturalism alone. There is just so much we cannot know.
This made me thankful for my own key to the Old Testament as a Christian. More than any philosophy of history, it is Christ who unlocks the meaning of this book for our lives today. Being an evangelical scholar at a place like IOSOT means to engage with all voices of the field in a responsible manner while not losing sight of this truth. At Tyndale, we want to offer our students the best of the academic world without compromise for the Gospel. This is the reason we attended this conference. And for some fun with wonderful, God-given colleagues.
Mario Tafferner Assistant Professor of Old Testament Language and Literature - August 2025
