Meet Bruce Waltke

(Reflecting on the previous post, and since my time has been kind of constrained lately, I thought it might be good for me to do a few posts about some of the professors / pastors / teachers I admire most. The bios will come from the webpages of their various institutions, and then I will add a few comments of my own. Feel free to contribute to this series if you'd like.)

"Dr. Bruce Waltke is a preeminent Old Testament scholar, holding doctorates from Dallas Theological Seminary (Th.D.) and Harvard University (Ph.D.). His teaching appointments at Dallas Theological Seminary, Regent College, and Westminster Theological Seminary won for him a reputation as a master teacher with a pastoral heart. He has written prolifically and his publications include, Intermediate Hebrew Grammar, Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax, Understanding the Will of God, and a commentary on Micah. He served as Old Testament editor for the New Geneva Study Bible and co-editor for the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. Dr. Waltke recently completed a commentary on Proverbs and is writing a commentary on Genesis. He was also a member of the translation committee for the New International Version. He served a term as president of the Evangelical Theological Society. "

I first encountered Dr. Waltke through the New Geneva Study Bible (the NKJV of the Reformation Study Bible) where he provided the notes on Genesis. Particularly helpful to me has been his book on Genesis, which includes his notes from the Study Bible alongside helpful discussions of the theology in each passage (as opposed to many commentaries, which get lost in textual or historical questions). Since then, I have discovered his work on Micah and his more recent work on Proverbs in the NICOT series. All are not only scholarly, but exceptionally helpful in getting at the message of the text. Since this is the most important goal of a commentary (imho), I think Waltke sets a good example for other scholars to follow. (Waltke is also highly respected by his peers. J. I. Packer and Sven Soderland edited a book called "The Way of Wisdom" which is a collection of essays written in his honor by the likes of John Sailhamer, Ian Provan, Peter Enns, Gordon Fee, and Roger Nicole.)