My Surprise Dinner With Bruce Waltke

As I was leaving the library this evening and walking to my car, I heard an “Excuse me!” Busy yakking on my cell, I was sort of irritated as I looked up to see who was interrupting my obviously important cell phone conversation (if there is such a thing!). As I lifted my head, I saw a 75-year-old guy with a funky black hat walking toward me.

“Can I get a jump?” he said plainly.

To be honest, I wanted to say, “No.” But I’m glad I didn’t. After asking for my name, he said, “My name is Bruce Waltke.”

To make a long story short, Dr. Waltke’s car wouldn’t start. I tried to jump it, but the battery wouldn’t hold a charge. After some failed attempts at calling seminary personnel, I decided it would be easier to just drop him off at his hotel and pick him up the next morning.

On the way there, he asked if I could drop him at a local restaurant so he could eat dinner and then walk home. Now I’m usually more introverted, but the thought of leaving this 75-year-old gentleman to walk home by himself at night didn’t sit well with me. So, what did I do? I did what all good seminarians do: I invited myself to dinner.

Now I suppose in some situations, ignorance is bliss. So perhaps it was to my benefit that though I had seen his name on books and commentaries before, I didn’t really know who he was or what he had written. This blind bliss enabled me to thoroughly enjoy sharing a 12 ounce prime rib with green beans and mashed potatoes with one of the foremost Reformed theologians of the day.

I felt like a little boy getting his first BB gun from Grandpa. We talked about theology, seminaries, biblical languages, the TNIV (of course! :-)), our families, etc. I asked, “What was your favorite book to write?” He said it was hard to say, but he felt as though he had made some serious contributions to biblical scholarship in his commentary on Proverbs. About seminaries today, he thinks that the languages are not emphasized enough. His perspective is that much of what you learn in seminary you will forget. But if you dig into the languages and learn how to do true exegesis, that is something you will use for the rest of our life. Perhaps this is good advice (and apropos as I spent my first two hours in the library today trying to learn the Hebrew alphabet for Hebrew I on Monday).

My favorite part of the evening was hearing bits of his life story. It was encouraging to me to hear that he felt completely ignorant when he started seminary (as do I in spite of my constant facades of confident knowledge displayed often on my blog). Especially interesting was his journey from Dallas Seminary to Westminster.

Well, if ignorance is bliss, providence is the “second blessing.” Accordingly, I thank the Lord for the special opportunity to hang out with Bruce Waltke. I won’t soon forget it. And I hope that if I ever become a 75-year-old eminent Reformed theologian that I’ll suffer the seminarians for plenty of 12 ounce prime ribs and authentic conversations.