Dr. Bernhard Word
Anderson
September 25, 1916 – December 26, 2007
By Professor Katheryn Pfisterer Darr
Professor
Emeritus J. Paul Sampley
Renowned biblical theologian Bernhard Word
Anderson, author of Understanding the Old Testament and Adjunct Professor at BUSTH from 1983-1996, died
peacefully at his home the day after Christmas. His
daughter, Carol Anderson Hanawalt, reports that he
was listening to Handel’s “Messiah” when
he lost consciousness. Barney loved music. It’s
consoling to know that his soul departed to such
majestic musical accompaniment.
Dr. Anderson was Professor of Old Testament Theology
at Princeton Theological Seminary from 1968-1983.
Prior to arriving at Princeton, he served as Dean
of the Theological School (1954-1963) and Henry
A. Buttz Professor of Biblical Theology (1954-1968)
at Drew University. In 1956, he recruited a young
scholar, Dr. Ray L. Hart, to Drew’s faculty.
Dean Hart remembers, “He was as powerful in
the pulpit as in the classroom at Drew, and no one
was absent in Craig Chapel when he preached.”
BUSTH welcomed Barney to its faculty in Fall, 1983.
Professor Harrell F. Beck had just begun a year-long
sabbatical leave. Dr. Simon B. Parker was busy being
the School’s Academic Dean and could offer
only a couple of Old Testament courses per year.
A brand new hire in Hebrew Bible, Katheryn Pfisterer
Darr, was still wet behind the ears and completing
her Ph.D. dissertation. All were delighted that
a person of Prof. Anderson’s immense stature
was on board. (Simon once told me that his interest
in biblical studies began when he read Understanding the Old Testament.) I was star-struck and immediately
decided to sit in on his course, “Biblical
Theology of Creation.” Over his years at BU,
Barney also taught courses in Isaiah, Jeremiah,
the Primeval History (Genesis 1—11), Old Testament
Theology, Psalms, Pentateuch, and Covenant Traditions
of the Old Testament to rave reviews.
Dr. J. Paul Sampley, STH Professor Emeritus of
New Testament and Christian Origins, met Barney
at Drew in 1965, Paul’s first year on its
faculty. For forty-two years, he and Sally have
shared a warm and loving friendship with Barney,
Joyce, and their children. Paul is the perfect person
to share memories of Barney with FOCUS readers:
Barney was quite the musician. His sumptuous grand
piano was always prominent in the living room, and
Barney could hardly pass it by without sitting to
play. My personal favorites were the Scott Joplin
rags that he had committed to memory. If someone
else came up he would segue from whatever he was
playing into the old gospel songs like “In
the Garden,” “There’s a Church
in the Valley by the Wildwood,” “What
a Friend We Have in Jesus,” “Amazing
Grace,” and “Shall We Gather at the
River?” All of them were played in the grand
style, with runs and riffs interlaced—and
I never met any guest there who could resist standing
around and singing along with him. It was certainly
no surprise that, at his funeral, some of those
very songs were played, though in a far more sedate
way than Barney would ever have played them. Or,
if it was not to be music, we might have one of
our rousing games of hearts. No mercy—cutthroat.
By long-established ritual, the loser had to treat
to coffee frappes the next day at the local drug
store (where the coffee syrup was made according
to the store’s secret recipe and, when we
started this tradition, the frappes cost a whopping
twenty-five cents each). Barney hated to lose. Not
that he was cheap; it was just the principle of
the thing. He liked it most if I had to buy. Be
it music or games, we usually quit at midnight.
Sally and I would go home; Barney’s family
would generally head for bed. But Barney would always
go back to his study for more work.
Like all great scholars, Dr. Anderson devoted himself
to disciplined study, working in his office most
evenings until at least 10:15 p.m. But he also loved
the outdoors and expended considerable energy “taming” the
countryside surrounding their retirement home, “New
Horizons,” in northwestern Massachusetts.
Paul and Sally Sampley hand-built their home nearby.
Paul offers the following glimpse of Barney, the “trailblazer”:
Sometimes during the afternoon, Barney would get
out his little John Deere tractor (the very one
I have and use at our place in Charlemont to this
day) and its trailer and head off for an hour or
two of trail building. Complete with switchbacks
and bridges, the trails eventually laced up and
around all the hills on his place. When he hit an
engineering dilemma we would have a conference;
when his trail needed to cross a brook, we’d
get together and fell a couple of trees, place them
across the creek, and nail a deck on them. His sense
of humor, a prominent feature, is illustrated by
the name he gave one trail that was on relatively
level ground: “The Path of Least Resistance.”
The Darrs’ first exposure to the friendship
Barney, Joyce, Paul, and Sally shared took place
during a weekend at the Sampleys’ home, not
long after John and I moved to Boston. Early in
the evening, Barney “casually” posed
a question about the Bible that launched a lively,
extended debate. Years later, I don’t recall
the topic precisely; but I’ll never forget
the experience. I’ve never laughed so hard
and long. Unfortunately, I was not present for another
conversation; but when Paul Sampley recounts it,
I grin from ear to ear:
Another time the topic was wine in the early churches.
We began to run the evidence by on our mental computer
screens: the cup at the Lord’s supper, the
wedding at Cana where Jesus changed the water into
wine, and Jesus’ apparent familiarity with
wine and wineskins. Then I mentioned 1Timothy 5:23: “Take
a little wine for your stomach’s sake.” And
in my own playful way, I asked if he knew how that
passage was interpreted by some in the US during
prohibition days. Of course, folks in that time
wouldn’t be able to countenance a positive
interpretation of drinking wine, so they understood
the text to direct those with stomach problems to
rub wine on the outside of their bodies. That tickled
Barney’s funnybone, and in less than a week
he had composed lyrics and music for a little song
whose every word, alas, I don’t fully recall.
But I do remember the first couplet and the last
two words of the song and here present them as a
tribute to Barney for his rich sense of humor, for
his creativity, and for his celebration of life
lived to the fullest: “First Timothy five
twenty-three, that’s the gospel for me. .
.[missing words that among other things recited
the text about taking wine for your stomach, rejected
the notion of drinking it, and concluded with the
two words]. . . applied externally.”
Professor Anderson and I worked together on the
fourth and the fourth abridged editions of Understanding the Old Testament, and it’s long been a staple
in the “Introduction to the Hebrew Bible” course
I teach at STH each fall. Like Prof. Parker, many
of you cut your biblical scholarship “teeth” courtesy
of Barney’s decades-long commitment to his
textbook, now in its fifth edition. In my files,
I still have copies of the endless correspondence
Barney and I exchanged as we painstakingly “jot
and tittled” our way through every stage of
the manuscripts and page proofs. He was remarkably
open to my suggestions; but in the end, UOT was
his baby, and I knew it. I “won” several
debates about updates, but lost others—including
his discussion of Canaanite religious practices.
Barney welcomed the contributions of contemporary
biblical scholars, including feminist scholars,
but the basic paradigm of UOT never really changed.
Its pedagogical approach still catches the imaginations
of its thousands of readers.
It’s a sad day when a grand master of one’s
discipline crosses over the river. The field of
Hebrew Bible has been hard-hit in the last two years;
and STH has felt the blows, especially in the untimely
death of Dr. Simon B. Parker and, now, Barney’s
passing at age 91. Over his distinguished career,
Prof. Anderson served as President of the Society
of Biblical Literature (1980) and President of the
American Theological Society (1985). In addition
to many honorary degrees and awards, he received
the Society of Biblical Literature’s 1980
Julian Morgenstern Award “in recognition of
his unusual success in sharing the results of biblical
scholarship with a very wide audience.” All
who were part of that audience, including those
privileged to know the man personally, join in honoring
his name. May his memory long remain!
Dr. Anderson is survived by his first wife, Joyce,
his wife Monique, his children Carol, Joan, Ronald,
and Ruth, and six grandchildren.
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