Career
He has spent most of his professional life as student and professor of the Lutheran MF Norwegian School of Theology in Oslo. Foreign many years he was president of the International Society for the Study of the Old Testament. He was a candidate in theology in 1956 and received his Doctor of Philosophy in 1969 with a doctoral thesis on Zechariah 9-14.
He was subsequently professor of Old Testament studies from 1970 to 1999, as well as dean twice (1975-1977 and 1988-1990).
He has edited the Hebraica Quinta series, and a number of English encyclopedias and reference books, as well as the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament: A History of its Interpretation, (Göttingen). Sæbø has also been active in revision of the Norwegian translation of the Bible, and contributed to the Norwegian Bible Society from 1965 to 1991.
He resides at Evje.