An Elusive String

The starting point for this paper is the conclusions reached in the paper presented at the last OTSEM conference. There, I claimed that the methodological foundation for reading the Book of Psalms as a book was somewhat wanting, that synchronic readings, focusing the theology of the entire book, were not always kept distinct from diachronic considerations, and that ultimately, the question of what kind of collection the Book of Psalms constituted had to be reexamined. As a possible way forward I then proposed that one idea worth further attention was the notion of the Book of Psalms as anthology, and my aim with this paper is to expand on that idea. Proceeding from three overlapping definitions of anthologies by literary scholars, I first describe some main characteristics of anthologies, followed by a discussion of whether the Book of Psalms could be regarded as anthology.