Zondervan - The Way of Wisdom

This book is a mixed bag of essays, some exploring biblical texts, others digging into theological themes, but all related in one way or another to seeking and finding wisdom. Why the mix? Because all the writers are colleagues, associates, or former students of Bruce Waltke who have teamed up from their different disciplines to honor him with this collection on his seventieth birthday, August 30, 2000. The variety seems fitting for such a one as Bruce, a many-sided scholar in the Renaissance mold whose brilliance as a linguist, exegete, biblical and systematic theologian, preacher, teacher, and pastoral counselor has made its impact at many different levels. Insofar as Bruces work has a single core, however, it is the exegeting and expounding of the Old Testament generally and Wisdom literature specifically, hence the focus of the present collection.

Bruce Kenneth Waltke, a man greatly beloved, is a humble, genial, unassuming believer in whom strength of mind, sweetness of character, deep devotion, and a bubbling sense of humor signally combine. His inflexible commitment to patient, persevering hard work and his equally persistent demand for large quantities of such work from his students make him an academic who strikes fear into faint hearts; on the other hand, his freshness of biblical insight and his silver-tongued fusion of head and heart have generated in most of those who know him a respect close to veneration. His learning is wide and is put to work by uncanny powers of concentration, which explains how, sitting at an airport gate one day, he managed to miss two flights home in succession, being so absorbed in a book that he did not hear the boarding call for either! Many of his peers would without hesitation rate him as one of the leading evangelical Old Testament scholars of our time.

Bruce was born in New Jersey in 1930 to parents (Mennonite Brethren in Christ) whose deep commitment to Christ was accompanied by a profound affection for their children. His upbringing was thus a healthy and happy one. Personally converted at age eleven and active as a Christian from then on, he graduated from Houghton College (Wesleyan); studied theology up to the doctoral level at Dallas Theological Seminary (dispensational); joined the Dallas faculty and taught in it for sixteen years, not counting two years spent gaining a doctorate at Harvard (liberal) and one as post-doctoral fellow in Jerusalem under the auspicies of Hebrew Union College (Jewish). He began his first spell at Regent College (transdenominational evangelical) in 1976, then spent five years teaching at Westminster Theological Seminary (confessional Reformed), and after that returned to Regent, where he is now Professor Emeritus while also holding an Old Testament chair at Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando. He married Elaine, whom he met at Houghton, in 1953, and they have three children: Suzanne, Stephen, and Jonathan. Bruce acknowledges the justice of Elaines view that she is the string linking him to the ground and stopping him from flying off, like a kite that has broken loose into the stratosphere of unearthed abstractions. Ah, the debt we academics owe our spouses!

In addition to his stellar teaching career, Bruces pen has been constantly busy. His books range from the very authoritative Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax (co-authored with Michael OConnor) to the very pastoral Finding the Will of God, while major commentaries on Genesis and Proverbs are still on the way, along with a full-scale biblical theology. There have also been many dictionary and journal articles and much editorial work, not to mention almost three decades of sustained labor on the New International Version of the Bible. Bruce tells with glee how after Suzanne and a friend, both eleven, had gazed at him working on the NIV , the friend asked what he was doing. Suzanne replied, Translating. Her friends curiosity appropriately aroused, she inquired, Whys he doing that? to which Suzanne blithely replied, He doesnt know how to do anything else! In fact, Bruce has known how to do several other things. He could have gone to the Juillard School of Music and become a professional violinist; he has served as a pastor; and he almost missed his academic vocation by too hastily enlisting as a military chaplain. Providentially the government lost his papers before he was sworn in, allowing Bruce to discover his gift in teaching.

Thank you, Bruce, for being who you are and giving what you give. We think of you as seventy years young rather than old, and on behalf of all who have shared in this book and others with us, we wish you many more golden years in which to continue doing the things you do so well. Giuseppe Verdi, your favorite composer, went on producing masterpieces through his eighth decade, and our hope is that you will do the same. After all, your father is still virile at 103!

In keeping with the range of Bruces own writing and teaching, some of the articles in this collection are technical, requiring a knowledge of Hebrew and Greek, while others are of broader appeal. On the whole, but with a few exceptions, we have followed the style guidelines of The SBL Handbook of Style (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1999). We thank Zondervan for taking on this project, Stan Gundry in particular for enthusing about it, Verlyn Verbrugge for keeping us on course, and the members of the Regent College team (TAs Matthew Anstey, Jude Fredricsen, Andrew Kirk, David Taylor, Marcus Tso; copy editor Jennifer Seidel; and layout artist Greg Reimer), who worked on the production side, for giving their time and skills to make it happen.