Category Archives: In Memoriam

Biblical Scholars, Friends, Greek Language, In Memoriam

In Memoriam: James “Jim” Aitken

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With a heavy heart I learned this morning of the passing of Jim Aitken, a fellow traveler in the field of Septuagint and, more broadly, biblical studies. Jim West posted initially about Jim’s death here, and subsequently posted the SOTS announcement here.

There will be, no doubt, many over the next week who post tributes to Jim as a first-rate scholar with an international reputation. He deserves every bit of honor and esteem that will pour forth in journal notices and social media.

Behind the scholarship and erudition, however, was a warm, witty, gracious man. I remember my first personal encounter with Jim–New Orleans (Nov 2009) during SBL. A relatively new Ph.D. into my second year of teaching at Houston Baptist (now Houston Christian University), I had presented a paper in the Septuagint & Cognate Studies section on the topic of Aramaic influence on Greek translations of the Hebrew Bible. My friend John Meade was also presenting in that session, and both of us were rather intimidated by the towering scholars of the field in the room. Afterwards, Jim came up to chat. Since I didn’t know him, I didn’t know what to expect (sometimes SBL meetings can resemble a gladiatorial bloodletting!). What I received was refreshing–warm encouragement, genuine interest in my thoughts, and time. Plenty of time. The room was filled with many important people, and Jim chose to spend time talking to me (and John), who were fairly unknown scholars trying to find our way in the world of the academy. I’ve always appreciated that first conversation with Jim.

Our paths continued to cross over the year at SBL meetings. When we finally starting graduating students from our MA in Biblical Languages program, one of our promising young graduates, Chris Fresch, decided he’d like to study Septuagint. I knew exactly who to send him to–Jim Aitken at Cambridge. I have known several now who have worked with Jim during their graduate work, and each has voiced admiration and appreciation for him.

My last interactions with Jim were happy ones. During the ETS/SBL meetings in Denver last year, Jim and I happened to grab a seat together over lunch at the Zondervan luncheon. We enjoyed a nice visit at that time. What’s more, to come full circle from John Meade’s and my initial meeting with Jim together in 2009, the two of us got to see Jim last November at the Denver SBL meeting during a special dinner honoring Peter Gentry in anticipation of his Festschrift (coming out in 2023 with Peeters). Jim Aitken had graciously agreed to submit an essay for the volume, and so as editors of the volume, John Meade, Jonathan Kiel, and I were keen to have Jim there for that special dinner. Little did we all know that it would be our last meal together, so we thank our God for his kind providences. At the end of this post are some photos from that dinner celebration. One of the pictures is of Jim with Peter Gentry, and the larger photo has Jim to the right of Claude Cox, across the table from Emanuel and Lika Tov.

When I heard about Jim’s untimely death, I checked his Twitter profile just to see if there were any updates or news there on what had happened. The final post on his profile reads as follows (dated Mar 30, a week before he passed away):

I wrote 5 words yesterday, but they were all exceptionally good words. At least two (“the …of…”) will probably survive the final edits too.

As I wrap up this “good word” (eulogia/εὐλογία), I note that Jim’s life to the very end was concerned with writing exceptionally good words. May the life-long legacy of his good words continue to shape, challenge, and sharpen us, even in those areas where we might sharply disagree. That, too, would honor Jim’s life.

Biblical Scholars, Dead Sea Scrolls, In Memoriam

In Memoriam: James A. Sanders

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Earlier this month we learned of the passing of James A. Sanders, a giant in biblical studies with a giant-sized influence in the scholarly world of biblical (and extrabiblical) manuscripts. His legacy will long survive him: just the other day I was consulting one of my volumes of Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament over a textual matter. He was one of the editors of that goodly set and a part of the committee devoted to analyzing textual variants in the Hebrew Bible whose report constituted that set. One of my colleagues here at Houston Baptist University, Craig Evans, notified the HBU faculty of Sanders’ passing, and with his permission I am posting that note here, as it forms a fitting eulogy to the man and his influence on Craig and others.

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3 October 2020

Dear SCT Colleagues:

I pass on to you sad news. As some of you may have already heard, James A. Sanders, born 28 November 1927, passed away Thursday morning, 1 October 2020. Jim was nearing his 93rd birthday. I met Jim in Claremont, California, at the beginning of the fall semester in 1977. It was the beginning of my doctoral studies. Jim was 49 and I was 25. Jim was always a handsome, youthful fellow. In fact, he could have passed for Dick Clark’s brother! Jim had just moved from Union Seminary in New York to the Claremont School of Theology, to launch the newly built Ancient Biblical Manuscript Center (ABMC), which housed in its climate-controlled vault thousands of images of biblical manuscripts, including microfilm and microfiche images of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Jim served as ABMC President until 2004. While at Union Jim’s colleagues included the likes of J. Louis Martyn and Raymond E. Brown.

Although Jim was not my doctoral supervisor (Bill Brownlee was), he played an important mentoring role while I was at Claremont and throughout my career. He and I founded in 1989 and then co-chaired the SBL program unit Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity. This in turned led to the founding of the Studies in Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity (SSEJC) series published by Sheffield Academic Press, then later Continuum, and now Bloomsbury T&T Clark. To date, we have published 21 volumes in the SSEJC series and two more volumes are in the works. As you may know, Jim served as the President of the Society of Biblical Literature in 1979. Jim’s best known work is Torah and Canon (1972). Jim was also well known for his The Psalms Scroll of Qumrân Cave 11 (DJD 4; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965), whose conclusions were confirmed many years later by Peter Flint’s work on all of Qumran’s Psalms scrolls.

Jim and I co-authored Luke and Scripture (Fortress Press, 1993) and co-edited several books, mostly in the SSEJC series. We presented together at several conferences, at SBL and elsewhere. I had the opportunity to edit, along with Shemaryahu Talmon (1920-2010), a Festschrift in honor of Jim, on the occasion of his 70th birthday. The 700-page book is called The Quest for Context and Meaning (BIS 28; Leiden: Brill, 1997). Contributors included Reginald Fuller and W. D. Davies. In recent years I helped Jim assemble his studies in two volumes: Scripture in Its Historical Contexts. Volume I: Text, Canon, and Qumran(FAT 118; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2018), and Scripture in Its Historical Contexts. Volume II: Exegesis, Hermeneutics, and Theology (FAT 126; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2019). Jim was awarded an honorary doctorate at Acadia University, where coincidentally I found myself on the faculty many years later. In fact, while at Acadia Divinity College I became friends with Jim Perkin, former President of Acadia University and himself a New Testament scholar, who had nominated Jim for the award.

Jim Sanders was a prince of a fellow. His wife Dora, whom Jim loved very much, died in June of 2016, at the age of 88. Dora danced, played the piano, the violin, and the organ. Dora participated in the American Dance Festival every summer from 1949 to 2004. She and Jim were quite the pair: Jim from Memphis, Tennessee, and Dora from New Jersey (and, spiritually, from New York). Jim and Dora had one child, a son, Robin David Sanders Sr., and two grandsons Robin David Sanders Jr, and Alexander Jonathan Sanders. It was Alex who in 2017 invited me and Ginny to fly out to California to attend Jim’s 90th birthday party. Although that visit was not possible, we did have opportunities to see Jim on other occasions in California and lunch with him. (Often when I flew to California in summers to teach at Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, I had the chance to visit Jim.)

Jim was one of the best biblical scholars of our era. Of all my professors at Claremont (and they were all good), it was Jim Sanders who could bring together the exegetical and textual minutiae and the big picture. It was he who taught me what textual criticism really was and what biblical criticism was and wasn’t and how it could edify the Church. For Jim faith and scholarship were never at odds but were always complementary. Some of my former and current grad students have complimented me by making that observation. Well, now you know where I got it. Jim will be sorely missed but his legacy will be a lasting one.

Best,

CAE

Craig A. Evans, Ph.D., D.Habil.

John Bisagno Distinguished Professor of Christian Origins

Houston Theological Seminary

Houston Baptist University

7502 Fondren Road

Houston, TX 77074

281-649-3210 (office)

281-649-3451 (fax)

cevans@hbu.edu

http://www.craigaevans.com 

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Craig-A-Evans/170270436355829

Friends, In Memoriam

In Memoriam: Steve Hays (1959-2020)

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Today an old friend of mine passed away. We knew each other from seminary days at Westminster Theological Seminary-CA where Greg Welty introduced us some time around 1995 or 1996. All three of us at one time or another served as teaching assistants to Prof. John Frame. Steve was incredibly well-read, trenchant in his critiques, and creative in his musings. Not by any means perfect, he did love his perfect savior, Jesus Christ, and attempted at every opportunity to work out the lordship of Christ in every area of life. Scripture and its authority always had the last word with Steve. That was refreshing.

The announcement of Steve’s passing was made this morning on the theology/philosophy/apologetics website that Steve started a few decades ago, Triablogue:

Steve Hays (1959-2020)

We just learned that Steve Hays has passed away in a hospice. He had cancer and heart disease. Both conditions were initially treatable, but he declined treatment. He was content to let go and die a natural death. What he lived by, he died by. He was preceded in death by both his parents.

Click here to read the rest of the announcement and the comments by those who benefited from Steve’s writing ministry. Rest in peace, Steve Hays.

Biblical Scholars, In Memoriam

OT Scholar Ronald F. Youngblood dies at age of 82

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I’ve been tied up with enough things over the past few weeks to manage to have missed this news until today. On July 5, 2014, Dr. Ronald Youngblood passed into glory. He taught Old Testament/Hebrew for Bethel Seminary at both the Saint Paul, MN and the San Diego, CA campuses (retiring from the latter in 2001). A fine gentleman and faithful, godly biblical scholar, he will be missed. Here are links to some of the sites reflecting on his life and service.

http://www.koinoniablog.net/2014/07/remembering-ronald-f-youngblood.html

http://www.biblica.com/en-us/about-us/news/2014/remembering-ron-youngblood/

The Legacy of Ron Youngblood

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/Jul/19/ronald-youngblood-translation-bible/

 

Biblical Scholars, In Memoriam

In Memoriam: Prof. Anson Rainey (1930-2011)

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I just received word today that the long and illustrious career of Anson Rainey ended yesterday when he lost his battle with pancreatic cancer. If you’d like to see the scholarly achievements of a bright light in studies of ANE language and culture, click here. It appears that the list of published works was last updated around 2008, so it is incomplete. But at last count, he had authored/edited 9 books, 112 articles in scholarly journals, and 48 essays which were components of books.

I’ve recently been listening to St. Augustine’s Confessions, and I came across this gem that I didn’t remember when I read the book in college: “And this idea sprang up in my mind out of my inmost heart, and I wrote some books–two or three, I think–On the Beautiful and the Fitting. Thou knowest them, O Lord; they have escaped my memory. I no longer have them; somehow they have been mislaid.” I’m tickled to imagine that someone could have written a few books and forgotten them or misplaced them! The only type of person who can even remotely begin to empathize with Augustine is one who is incredibly prolific–and Prof. Rainey was certainly that! I wonder how many books Prof. Rainey wrote and never published. . . . May God rest his soul.

Biblical Scholars, In Memoriam

The Homegoing of OT Scholar D.J. Wiseman

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This past week I received a news letter from Pete Williams of Tyndale House notifying that Donald Wiseman had passed away.  Below I am pasting a tribute to Dr. Wiseman written by Professor Alan Millard (Univ. of Liverpool), which Pete had sent along.  I’m very thankful for the way in which Wiseman united a lively faith with his sharp intellect.  May his tribe increase!

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Professor Donald Wiseman (1918-2010)
The passing of Donald Wiseman on 2nd February, 2010, marks the end of an era in the story of Tyndale House and the Tyndale Fellowship. After a year reading history at King’s College, London, W. J. Martin persuaded him that study of the biblical world and its languages would be more valuable to the church and biblical studies, so he turned to Hebrew and Assyriology. Martin had been the major stimulus in the creation of Tyndale House and Donald Wiseman saw its strategic potential. He gave much time and thought to the affairs of the House, serving as Chairman of the Biblical Research Committee, which had the initial responsibility and of the Tyndale House Council, which inherited it, from 1957 to 1986. As Chairman of that and other committees, he guided discussion with wisdom, patience and humour, ensuring sensible decisions were made. When there were doubts in UCCF (then IVF) circles about continuing financial support, he insisted that the House was providing a service which no other evangelical institution offered and had potential for much more. When problems of space for the Library arose, it was Donald who suggested the annexe which was built as The Hexagon in 1984.

He saw the priority for Tyndale House lay in biblical research, supplying positive information and arguments to oppose widely taught liberal views about Scripture. His vision was well expressed by John Stott in 1992, ‘We shall never capture the church for the truth of the gospel unless and until we can re-establish biblical scholarship, hold (and not lose) the best theological minds in every generation, and overthrow the enemies of the gospel by confronting them at their own level of scholarship’ (Quoted by Tom Noble, Tyndale House and Fellowship, 239).

Like Martin, Donald Wiseman was a great enthusiast and encourager of others, in Britain and abroad. He chaired the Tyndale Old Testament Study Group from 1951 to 1981, taking time and trouble to find young scholars whom he could introduce to the Group so that they would know there were others who could support them in their often lonely  research. The Bible is a product of the ancient Near East, so he recognized that it should be read and assessed in the light of knowledge about that world. With that in mind, aware of the value of the archaeological contexts of ancient artefacts, he set up the Tyndale Biblical Archaeology Study Group in 1958, which, although not functioning regularly in recent years, brought together linguists and archaeologists to evaluate and apply new and old discoveries to biblical studies. On his initiative papers were brought together as Notes on Some Problems in the Book of Daniel (1965) and Essays on the Patriarchal Narratives (1980) and he stimulated other publications by fellows of Tyndale House (e.g. David Tsumura, The Earth and the Waters in Genesis 1 and 2, 1989). A volume of  essays by members of the Old Testament Study Group was dedicated to him in gratitude for his many years of devotion (R. S. Hess, G. J. Wenham. P. Satterthwaite, eds., He Swore an Oath (1994).

His experience and knowledge marked Donald as a major contributor to, and Editor of, the New Bible Dictionary (1962, 1982, 1996) and The Illustrated Bible Dictionary (1980). For many years he was Editor for Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries and gave his skills to a variety of other Christian publications.

Donald was always ready to help a cause he thought would be fruitful in the service of his Saviour, preaching and teaching and holding informal groups for Bible Study. The number who faced the claims of the Gospel through meeting him cannot be told, neither can the number whose lives and careers he has influenced or guided.
As one of the latter, I give thanks for his life, his service and his fellowship.

Alan Millard