Today was a bright sunny day. The chapel was getting filled and the faculty chairs were unusually empty. The chapel service started by Dr. Sedwick from CE department. I was disappointed because of not sing a hymen in the beginning. My mind wonders away thinking about the faculty—what happened to them, usually these chairs are full. The first chair left to the podium is dedicated to Dr Honor. Dr Hoehner rarely misses chapel, I wondered. I love to watch him while, message been delivered by other Profs. This smart, strong, white-haired man rarely read his bible at the chapel—he just closes his eyes and followed the text, while others are reading diligently. Once in a while some of the Profs throw a curve ball using the New Testament texts. And those perplexed times he would turned to his bible, following the lecture scratching his head. Times like those, we used to laugh watching his reactions.Then Dr. Sedwick said the president would bring an important announcement. Dr. Bailey took the podium and said, “today… Dr. Hoehner after his daily jog… went home…and collapsed.” I thought they have taken him to a hospital and he is going to ask us to remember him in our prayers. These kinds of notices are very common. But his voice became frail an sad, it starts to shiver—then I couldn’t believed what I was hearing. Dr. Bailey said, “They tried to resuscitate him, he went to be with Lord…” and then pointing to the chair and said, “that chair will never be the same again!!!”
Yes, Dr. Bairley is right—Dr. Harold Hoehner was a remarkable man to DTS. The New Testament department consider him as the same caliber with the Dr. Scoffield (founder) and Dr. Woolverd (Most influenced President). His contribution is bringing the critical thinking to that department. I have heard some Professors commenting on Dr. Hoehner saying, before his time DTS taught what to believe, but Dr. Hoehner brought the notion of training the students to search and find the truth by them selves. This was a risky thing to do, students may differ seeing what is lay behind the text. However he trusted God and brought the "thinking aspect" to the academia of the DTS New Testament department. He encouraged the PhD grads to go to different universities and get their PhD’s. That’s why most of New Testament Professors are trained in UK or else where. I was not qualified enough (unfortunately) to sat in his higher Greek exegetical courses. However, for me He will be remembered as a humble man, who is willing to even participate in the World Evangelism Conference feature film acting a laughable character, last proponent of majority text and Matthean priority in New Testament department.
DTS web site A Tribute to beloved Professor Dr. Harold W. Hoehner cites,
“As a department chair, he brought the highest ideals in academic standards to the DTS campus along with compassion and encouragement to his department faculty and their families. Along with others in the department, he crafted a thorough yet learner-friendly model of New Testament Greek exegesis that is widely used today.
As a teacher, he always pushed his students toward excellence, careful study of Scripture, and fair-minded interaction with the wider world of New Testament scholarship. His magnificent commentary on Ephesians—his magnum opus—will continue to instruct and inspire pastors and teachers for many years to come. Because one of his books is entitled Herod Antipas, he became affectionately known to a generation of students as “Herod Hoehner.” He was known for his unwavering love for the style manual by Kate Turabian. With King’s College of Cambridge, England, as his doctoral alma mater, some have said his only educational regret was that he did not attend Texas A&M (simply because he loved Aggie jokes so much)!
As a person, Harold was a man of integrity, frugality, hard work, strong opinions, and fairness to others coupled with a loyal, collegial spirit, humility, and humor. Though he was not a good actor by his own admission, he took opportunities to participate in Senior Chapel or Missions Conference videos because he knew students would get a laugh seeing him trying to act cool.”
You can read more about him and his impact on Harold W. Hoehner Tribute.
Dr. Hoehner will be sorely missed!
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