Photo from ACU Today
There were 3 men on the committee for the oral exams I had to pass to obtain my master’s degree in Bible from Abilene Christian University. I was allowed to select them and chose the three men with whom I had done the bulk of my classes: Tom Olbricht, John Willis and Neil Lightfoot. Dr. Lightfoot passed away on Monday.
I first had Dr. Lightfoot as an undergraduate, learning the skills of exegesis. In graduate school, I was able to take Dr. Lightfoot’s famous Gospel of John class and an advanced exegetical course. I didn’t get to take his class on Hebrews, which was also quite well spoken of.
Dr. Lightfoot was the epitome of a scholar. He once told of us of his favorite Christmas holiday, when he had read all of the back issues of Biblical Archaeology Review. Yet he also spoke to us of his love for the Dallas Cowboys, reminding us that he was more than just a student of the Bible.
Dr. Lightfoot helped me learn that wordiness does not equal godliness; that is, he was a professor who wasn’t impressed by the length of your paper but by what you said in it. Many of my friends were outraged when I got a good grade on the 65 research questions over the Gospel of John even though I only turned in 42 pages. I had learned that Dr. Lightfoot wanted you to say what needed to be said and to stop at that. I’ve always tended to be a concise writer and speaker, but I think it was Dr. Lightfoot that helped confirm to me that that was more than all right.
His book on How We Got The Bible has sold over a million copies. He also wrote very popular books about the parables. He told us that when his first book on the parables begin to sell well, the publisher offered him a large advance to bring out a second book within a year. Lightfoot turned it down, saying that he couldn’t do the quality work he wanted to do in that short of time.
Dr. Lightfoot touched the lives of many Christian men and women around the world. I’m proud to have known him.
There is an excellent tribute to Dr. Lightfoot on the blog of the ACU Today magazine.
I took Dr. Lightfoot’s I Thessalonians exegesis class as an undergraduate in 1981 (I think). The man loved vellum! To this day I remember his insistence on the correct pronunciation of two words, maranatha and Septuagint. Ma-ra-na-THA, and SEPT-uh-jint. I guess I learned something after all! He and Carl Spain were my heroes!