KLY project

In 1998 Prof. Johannes de Moor (Protestant Theological University Kampen) came up with the idea to begin a research project to elucidate the lexemes for utensils in biblical Hebrew. In 2000, this idea was adopted by the Dutch-Flemish society for Old Testament study (Oudtestamentisch Werkgezelschap, OTW). The title of the new project was KLY, the transcription of the Hebrew noun כְּלִי, which means ‘utensil’, ‘vessel’, etc. Prof. Johannes de Moor and Prof. Bob Becking (Utrecht University) were appointed as editors of what initially was conceived as volume 50 in the series Oudtestamentische Studiën (OTS), to be published in 2002, sixty years after the first volume appeared in 1942. The word כְּלִי has the numerical value of 60 in Hebrew. Since the project appeared to be too time-consuming for the authors and editors, the projected volume did not appear, but Johannes de Moor edited part of the contributions and published them at the OTW website.

In 2015 the coordination of the KLY project was entrusted to Klaas Spronk, Marjo Korpel, Meindert Dijkstra, and Paul Sanders, who formed a new editorial board. In 2017 it was decided to incorporate the KLY project into the international and more comprehensive SAHD project. The editorial board of SAHD entrusted the role of chair to Klaas Spronk in 2019 and the function of secretary to Paul Sanders in 2020. Raymond de Hoop also became member of the new editorial board, with the task of developping the plans for the new SAHD website. The editorial board of SAHD asked the authors of the KLY entries to adapt and expand their contributions in order to conform to the more comprehensive SAHD format.