Harold Hoehner 1935-2009

Dallas Seminary lost a beloved professor today when Dr. Harold Hoehner passed into glory after his morning jog at the age of 74. His legacy at the school spanned more than forty years.

Though he earned two doctorates--one from DTS and one from Cambridge--he was ever full of good humor and totally approachable. About five years ago in an interview about life at Cambridge he told of how "students read Greek or Latin like we would read a newspaper" and an undergrad acquaintance of his would translate French poetry into Hebrew on the weekends for fun. Of course he was totally in their league, but he didn't perceive of himself that way.

My funniest memory of Dr. Hoehner was his appearance in one of the school's famous "senior chapels," an annual tradition when the graduating class usually performs a spoof on a movie or musical. (We've had "Greece" for "Grease"; "Fiddler at His Desk" for "Fiddler on the Roof"; "Preaches with Notes" for "Dances with Wolves," etc.) That year the theme was "The Miserables" (i.e., the miserable, overworked students, as I recall) based on "Les Miserables." In a reworked version of "Master of the House," many of the senior professors, including Dr. Hoehner, appeared dressed in their flowing regalia and sang "Masters of the Word" during which they recited (from memory) forms of the Greek verb luo.
Dr. Hoehner appears here leaning on the stack of books he helped "birth," including his work on Herod Antipas which gained him the nickname of "Herod Hoehner." For more about Dr. Hoehner's life and legacy, go to the DTS web site. Also, in December Dr. Dan Wallace wrote a touching tribute to Dr. Hoehner which appears here.