About ten days ago Harold Hoehner died. He was my professor at Dallas Theological Seminary. As I understand, after his morning jog, he experienced a cardiac event and went to heaven rather abruptly. This New Testament Scholar and director of PhD studies at Dallas was seventy four. It made me realize that as I stumble onto fifty years of age those who have gone on before me in previous generations begin to pass off of the scene. Again, "we're it!" surrounds my conscience in something with much greater stakes than tag.

I had Dr. Hoehner for two classes at Dallas Seminary. One was for a class in New Testament Introduction. This thorough going Cambridge scholar was encyclopedic when it came to the history and chronology of the inter-testamental period. He knew all the stories that added color to the important fill that helped the learner. Most every class was a combination of a beginning Aggie joke (humor indigenous to Texas as the Aggies fall prey to the butt end of the barb) and an engaging discussion of the matters before the class working through the content. He drew from such a deep well that the discussions for him seemed effortless. He was scholarly, but approachable and his humor made him humane and tricked you into thinking he was common. His mind and heart were anything but common.

He was a thorough going New Testament scholar. I had him for the section of 1 Corinthians in the Greek cycle that all ThM students took at that time. He understood the grammar of the New Testament and could unpack the nuances of the language with such clarity. I will always remember an experience I had in my section of the 1 Corinthians class. After we exegeted 1 Corinthians 7 we all had to write a position paper on marriage, divorce and remarriage. He chose from our section a range of positions on the topic and got us all up in front of the class on a panel to defend our position. At the time, I was espousing some bizarre position that divorce in the Bible exclusively and only related to the break ups of engagement/betrothal (not unlike the Joseph and Mary issue that Joseph contemplated after God overshadowed Mary). At the time myself, Bill Gothard, and three independent fundamentalists pastors in South Carolina held that view. Gothard could not have even defended that view on that day, but nonetheless I tried. I have never been skewered so graciously nor has a rotisserie ever treated its prey with such dignity and respect. His questions made me think about thoughts I had never considered before. He pressed me in frontier areas of my thought that blazed virgin trails. Isn't that the job of the master teacher- to lead in thinking and reflection? As he pressed me in front of the class before whom I was empanelled, He treated me with so much regard and held affirmation out for my convictions. All the while, he was frying my ideas on the text and other passages he brought to bear on the issue. He closed with a pastoral charge to all of us to hold these positions with the utmost grace as we dealt with people. He knew way ahead how easy the arguments go down in front of your peers in class and knew well before we saw it clearly how painful the issue of divorce is for the church. He urged us to maintain our convictions earnestly, holding onto them with grace as we deal with the broken. I have never forgotten how he dealt with me that day. Grace, scholarship and careful thought soaked in the text were the order of that day...and every day in Dr. Hoehner's classes.

The best vantage point I have ever heard to explain a Biblical recognition of changes in God's economy (dispensations) was his rehearsal of a debate he was involved in (if I am remembering right) at his beloved Houghton College. In the middle of the debate he asked his foe if he had brought a lamb to worship the previous Sunday. His partner reluctantly admitted that in fact, he had not. Dr. Hoehner then inquired into whether approaching God was different before Sinai than after. Then he pressed to ask if at the consummation of all things relating to God would be different. On all four fronts his interlocutor had to admit change. That is just recognizing Biblical change and not making the text walk on all fours...or is it sevens? I think even the DTS doctrinal statement only lists four seasons of God's relatedness to humanity in redemptive history. I've used his "Did you bring a lamb?" question since that time. Yes, it is finished...gloriously finished once and for all. The curtain was changed...just unraveled right in the face of being made obsolete. How delightful is the new and living way.

I had few personal encounters with him. He did not know my name. But around 1987 I ran into him at a national conference. We exchanged pleasantries and he began to inquire just where I was and what was going on in my family's life. At the time we were potty training Caleb, our oldest. It is not everyday that you get the opportunity to discuss potty training toddlers with a Cambridge scholar! But I will always remember the advice he gave to my wife and me. He said, "You know my wife and I stressed over potty training with our oldest and the more we stressed the less successful we were. We decided that as long as he was potty trained by college, we were ok. We relaxed and then it happened." We laughed and departed, but that was probably some of the best advice we ever received on potty training. "Relax, it will happen!" That reminds me of the many faceted sides to a neat guy: scholar, quick witted aggie jokester and down to earth friend and mentor. That is a great package and one which will be sorely missed in the DTS family and God's kingdom.

Oh sure, he was not perfect. It is funny to read his introduction to his magnum opus on Ephesians. I think he was only fifteen years or so late on the deadline for publication. The series the book was to be included in might have been out of print by the time he went to press. He blew by all length restrictions and wrote himself out of anything but a stand alone publication with New Testament scholars galore from all over the world commenting on the jacket cover.

All of us do something with our lives. Dr. Hoehner's something was with the text of the New Testament and with students. His students live indebted to him. His memory spurs us on to careful thought and life long learning. Thank God for Dr. Hoehner.