Remembering Dr. Harold Hoehner
While working on my Master of Theology degree from Dallas Seminary I had the prvilege of sitting at the knee of Dr. Harold Hoehner. Dr. Hoehner and I had come from the same area of the country and had some contacts from the past in common. He went to be with the Lord yesterday after going out for a run. He was 74. At different points he held the chair of the New Testament department at Dallas and headed the PhD program. I took Exegesis of Romans from him. It was a rigorous Greek class on the book of Romans and was made all the more so because he was teaching it. He was a first rate scholar and an effective teacher. He will long be remembered for his extensive commentary on Ephesians which is truly one of the best and most extensive scholarly works on this little book in the history of the church. It took him something like 13 years to complete. In addition to his commentary much of his academic legacy is bound up in the amazing New Testament faculty he helped amass at Dallas. Under his watch that department became one of, if not the, premier New Testament department in the country.
Beyond his academic accomplishments, Dr. Hoehner was a joyous and kind man whose irenic spirit was a welcome compliment to his educational prowess. While I was in seminary a chapel was held in his honor and much of it was devoted to roasting him. His son-in-law and I were friends and classmates and I was asked to play Dr. Hoehner in a multi-scene skit poking fun at him. We had a blast and he thoroughly enjoyed it. I was able to reconnect with him briefly at the Evangelical Theological Society meeting in Providence back in Novermber, and it was delightful. Undoubtedly the Lord is honored by a life so lived with the kingdom in view. Dr. Hoehner leaves a legacy of faithful scholarship and dedicated equipping, as well children who are serving Christ in Russia and Afghanistan. I praise God that I could learn from his scholarship and be blessed by his heart. Bask in eternal rest Dr. Hoehner.
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