The Scott Award

Award History

This award was established in honour of Robert Balgarnie Young Scott, one of Canada’s most renowned Old Testament Scholars. In 1951, Scott purchased several fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls for McGill University, which were eventually retained in Israel. His own antiquities is housed in the Redpath Museum at McGiill University as the R. B. Y. Scott Collection. Scott was a founding member of CSBS, served as the Secretary-Treasurer for its first seven years, and was named President of the Society in 1971.

Value

The award of $500 is announced each year at the CSBS Annual General Meeting.

Criteria

This award recognizes an outstanding book in the areas of Hebrew Bible and/or the Ancient Near East written in English or French by a member of the CSBS and published in the current and previous two years (currently those with a copyright date of 2024, 2023, 2022). Collections of essays, whether by a single author or by multiple authors, are not eligible for the award.

The category of “outstanding” ought to be understood expansively and may be characterized by persuasiveness and originality, theoretical or methodological innovation, intellectual creativity, and/or the high quality of scholarship that reaches beyond the academic guild and is public-facing. As of 2023, a lifetime maximum of two CSBS Book Awards can be given to any one scholar. When equally competitive books are considered, preference should be given to authors who have not previously won this award.

Selection Process

The three-person Adjudication Committee is appointed from among members of CSBS with a publishing record in at least one of the areas covered by the award.

Nominations

Nominators must be CSBS members. Self-nominations are acceptable. Nominations are made in the member login area of the CSBS website. The nomination deadline is January 15, 2024. Authors of all nominated books will be notified February, while only the award winner will be notified by late April or early May. Books can only be nominated for one of the two CSBS book awards.

Previous Winners

• 2024: Francis Landy, Poetry, Catastrophe, and Hope in the Vision of Isaiah (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023).
• 2023: Hanne Løland Levinson, The Death Wish in the Hebrew Bible: Rhetorical Strategies for Survival (Cambridge University Press, 2021).
• 2022: Sara Milstein, Making a Case: The Practical Roots of Biblical Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021).
• 2021: Jonathan Vroom, The Authority of the Law in the Hebrew Bible and Early Judaism: Tracing the Origins of Legal Obligation from Ezra to Qumran (JSJSup 187; Leiden: Brill, 2018).
• 2020: Ian Vaillancourt, The Multifaceted Saviour of Psalms 110 and 118: A Canonical Exegesis (Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix, 2019).
• 2019: Carmen Joy Imes, Bearing Yhwh’s Name at Sinai: A Reexamination of the Name Command of the Decalogue (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2018). See our CSBS Blog for an author interview.
• 2018: Ian D. Wilson, Kingship and Memory in Ancient Judah (Oxford University Press, 2017).
• 2017: Mark J. Boda, The Book of Zechariah (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016).
• 2016: Iain Provan, Seriously Dangerous Religion: What the Old Testament Really Says and Why It Matters (Waco: Baylor University Press, 2014).
• 2015: John Kessler, Old Testament Theology: Divine Call and Human Response (Waco: Baylor, 2013).
• 2014: Gary N. Knoppers, Jews and Samaritans: The Origins and History of Their Early Relations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013).
• 2013: Keith Bodner, Jeroboam’s Royal Drama (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012).
• 2012: not awarded
• 2011: Joel N. Lohr, Chosen and Unchosen: Conceptions of Election in the Pentateuch and Jewish-Christian Interpretation (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2009).
• 2010: Paul S. Evans, The Invasion of Sennacherib in the Book of Kings: A Source-Critical and Rhetorical Study of 2 Kings 18-19 (Leiden: Brill, 2009).
• 2009: Keith Bodner, 1 Samuel: A Narrative Commentary (Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2008).
• 2008: Gordon J. Hamilton, The Origins of the West Semitic Alphabet in Egyptian Scripts (Catholic Biblical Association of America: Washington, DC, 2006).
• 2007: William S. Morrow, Protest against God: The Eclipse of a Biblical Tradition (Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2006.
• 2006: Isaac Kalimi, The Reshaping of Ancient Israelite History in Chronicles (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2005).
• 2005: Gary N. Knoppers, I Chronicles: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, 2 volumes (New York: Doubleday, 2004).
• 2004: John Van Seters, A Law Book for the Diaspora: Revision in the Study of the Covenant Code (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003).
• 2003: John L. McLaughlin, The marzeah in the Prophetic Literature: References and Allusions in Light of the Extra-Biblical Evidence (Leiden: Brill, 2001).
• 2002: Baruch Halpern, David’s Secret Demons: Messiah, Murderer, Traitor, King (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001).
• 2001: Geoffrey H. Parke-Taylor, The Formation of the Book of Jeremiah: Doublets and Recurring Phrases (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2000).