Thirty years ago, a British schoolgirl had a unique request for her 16th birthday present. Candida Moss wanted scholar Raymond Brown's 1971 commentary on the Gospel According to John from the illustrious Anchor Bible Series, then published by Doubleday. That treasured book is still on her home bookshelf today as Moss, now a well-published New Testament scholar and professor of theology at the University of Birmingham, prepares to become the fifth general editor, the first New Testament scholar, and the first woman to lead the 68-year-old series, now known as the Anchor Yale Bible Series, in May 2025.
In naming her to the role last month, the Yale University Press director John Donatich cited her "sincere appreciation for the historic mission and legacy of the Anchor series, as well as a sense of creativity and innovation that will ensure that the series remains the vanguard of biblical scholarship for the next generation.”
Since the press purchased and rebranded the series and its 115 titles in 2007, it has surpassed 165 titles with 150 currently available at e-books and many volumes licensed to the Logos subscription service. The series even includes a 2012 title, Ancient Christian Martyrdom: Diverse Practices, Theologies, and Traditions, written by Moss. (Why the interest in people who died for Christ? "I was a sickly Catholic girl so the question of people who find inspiration in suffering intrigued me," said Moss who had a kidney transplant in her 20s) And coming up in April 2025 is a new addition to the series' reference works, Israelite Religion: From Tribal Beginnings to Scribal Legacy by Karel van der Toorn, a Dutch scholar of ancient religions.
Commissioning new commentaries and reference volumes is a shared task for the general editor. Moss will be working with a board of biblical scholars and with the Anchor Yale Bible in-house editor Abigail Storch in selecting and publishing titles that can serve the interests of scholars, clergy, and a wide range of curious readers, Storch told PW. "What they see in Candida is a passion for justice and truth-telling, and for the human experience at the heart of scholarship."
Both Moss and Storch were at the November joint meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature and the American Academy of Religion, meeting with potential board members and current and prospective authors.
Moss told PW, her aim for any board appointments is to "ensure that we have coverage of the whole Bible. This is particularly important as I am a New Testament scholar and most of the commentaries are on the Hebrew Bible." She has her eye out for works that "help people understand the political, social, and historical context in which (Biblical) books were written and authors who can help readers navigate complex archaeological or literary material. I think we would love clearly written volumes on the Archeology of Judea or the History of Israel."
After hearing a provocative talk on the Dead Sea Scrolls and ancient mathematics at the SBL meeting, she said, "I would personally love to see a book that can situate the Hebrew Bible in the broader history of mathematics and science. That’s a cutting-edge line of inquiry in classics and the study of ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt and it is ripe for discussion in ancient Judaism as well."
Some of their projects ahead will involve updating or redoing earlier volumes in the series to reflect advances in scholarship. This would not include Moss's Brown commentary because, Storch said, "No one can do better." There's also a particular project in Moss and Storch's minds: To someday update the massive Anchor Bible Dictionary — six volumes with 1,200 pages, holding 6,000 entries from 1,000 contributors first published in 1992 — with the latest in scholarship presented with the latest technology. Right now, it's pie in the sky. But there's definitely a taste for it.
