Bruce Waltke

Bruce K. Waltke (born August 30, 1930) is an American Reformed evangelical professor of Old Testament and Hebrew. He has held professorships in the Old Testament at Dallas Theological Seminary, Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia, Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida, and Knox Theological Seminary in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

Life Waltke was born in New Jersey to parents in the Mennonite Brethren tradition. He received an A.B. from Houghton College, a Th.M. in 1956 and Th.D. in 1958 (Greek and New Testament) from Dallas Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. (Ancient Near Eastern Languages and Literature) from Harvard University in 1965. His first dissertation was titled "The Theological Significations of ʼanti and ʻuper in the New Testament". and his second, "Prolegomena to the Samaritan Pentateuch". Additionally, Waltke has been awarded an honorary D.Litt. from Houghton College.

His teaching career as a professor of Old Testament spanned Dallas Theological Seminary (1958–1976), Regent College (1976–1985; 1991–1995), Westminster Theological Seminary (1986–1990), Reformed Theological Seminary (1990–2010), and Knox Theological Seminary (2011–).

Waltke served as president of the Evangelical Theological Society in 1975. He was on the translation committee for the New American Standard Bible (NASB), and has been on the Committee for Bible Translation (CBT), responsible for the New International Version (NIV), since its inception in 1974. He is the only current member of the CBT who was on the original committee for the NIV.

Waltke's books include Intermediate Hebrew Grammar, Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax, Finding the Will of God: A Pagan Notion? (Eerdmans, 2016; ), Creation and Chaos, and commentaries on Proverbs (New International Commentary on the Old Testament, 2 vols.), Micah (Tyndale Commentary Series), and with C. J. Fredricks Genesis (Zondervan 2001, ), which was a winner of the 2002 Gold Medallion Book Award. He was co-editor for the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, and he was the Old Testament editor for the Expositor's Bible Commentary series, the New Geneva Study Bible, and the Spirit of the Reformation Study Bible. He wrote An Old Testament Theology: An Exegetical, Canonical, and Thematic Approach, which received an ECPA Christian Book Award in 2008.

Waltke has travelled widely as a Bible expositor, as an area supervisor for excavations at Gezer, Israel, and as the director of field study trips to the Middle East and the Classical world. He is married and has three grown children.

A Festschrift, The Way of Wisdom: Essays in Honor of Bruce K. Waltke, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000; ) was edited by J. I. Packer and Sven K. Soderlund.

In April 2010, news reports emerged alleging that Waltke was asked to resign his professorship at the Reformed Theological Seminary because he advocated that evolution and Christianity were compatible in a video on the Biologos Foundation's website. However, the RTS chancellor, Ric Cannada, later stated that this was not the case and that Waltke had submitted his resignation without solicitation. Waltke himself clarified things: "Ric's acceptance of my resignation has only added to the emotional turmoil; I have received letters from many quarters condemning RTS for his action. In fact, I was asked to be interviewed about my resignation on ABC News with Diane Sawyer! Of course, I refused because I am certain it would have been spun to reflect negatively on RTS and the church. I find no fault with the RTS administration; in fact, I think they did the right thing."

Waltke now serves with the clergy at an ACNA Anglican parish in Washington state.

Works

Thesis

Books

- in 2 volumes

- Waltke served as OT editor.

- retitling of the New Geneva Study Bible.

Articles and chapters

Training course

Festschrift