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Compared with some scholars who have spent much time roaming the world, I have been relatively static. On two occasions I have made lecture visits to the United States of America, on both occasions teaching at the Winona Lake Summer School of Theology. These occasions were valuable in giving me more insight into the American scene than I would otherwise have had. The campus was beside the Lake and I remember well a tragic occurrence on my first visit. It was during the first week I was there that one of the students, who had just finished his medical training and was doing a short course of theology before going with his wife to the mission field, was drowned while swimming in the lake. This had a profound effect on the teaching staff and the whole student body. It reminded us all of the mystery of God’s plans. I have often wondered why the life of that fine young man had to come to such an abrupt end. I had discussed with him his future plans only the day before. I soon got used to lecturing from seven o’clock to half past eight in the morning and was deeply grateful to be on the early shift, for the temperatures soared to the nineties by midmorning and there was no air conditioning.
I have also made three visits to Germany to lecture at the Freie Theologische Akademie. Two of those visits were at Seeheim in the Bergstrasse. Lectures were given in the old summer palace of the Dukes of Hessen, which was being used as a College. I was glad to have been associated with the first year of the Akademie, for I have witnessed its considerable development. It was something of a parallel to my own College and was aimed to serve the same purpose. My third visit was to the premises acquired in Giessen, which the growth of the College has been dramatic. I was glad to lecture on the soil of Germany which had produced some many of the radical opinions of the nineteenth and twentieth century. I helped me to appreciate what difficulties many European theological students have and to recognise how much many similar institutions need help.
Another European country where I have lectured on New Testament subjects has been Denmark. I spent a week there at the Bible Institute in Copenhagen, where I found a group of most responsive students. Most of these students were at the University of Copenhagen and the short pre-term course offered them opportunity to discuss New Testament themes from a different point of view.
I have for some years been a member of the Society for New Testament Studies (or Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas, to give it its formal title). One year, 1972, it was proposed that the Society should organise a study trip to Palestine and I decided to join it. It was an interesting and illuminating visit. It was arranged through a tour agency, but the academics who formed the party decided to have some say in what sightseeing excursion were arranged. The tour leader escorted a party down to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre before breakfast on the first morning which was a Sunday. The idea was to sample the various kinds of worship which were taking place in different parts of the building. For me this was not a particularly good introduction to Jerusalem for I found myself suffering from fatigue which was to dog my steps for the next few days. That initial experience did not predispose me to get excited about the official sites. Nevertheless, many other places in Jerusalem did not disappoint. Perhaps the most moving experience was when our party celebrated communion on the Pavement led by the bishop of Jerusalem.
Because the scholars of our party had many connections with those working in Jerusalem we had the opportunity to visit an archaeological site near the Temple area. It was only a short time after the six days war in which Israel had ousted the Palestinians from the west part of the city. On one occasion tensions rose dramatically. Some of our party had left very early for a trip to Hebron, but those of us who had remained were having breakfast in the hotel overlooking the city when we noticed a sudden burst of smoke appearing over the El Aqsa mosque. It was the day that an Australian had set fire to it because he was convinced it was desecrating the Temple area. At once the staff in our hotel, who were Arabs attributed it to the Jews. The police and the army were quick to clear the whole area, but it was not until much later that we learned that the fire was the work of a crank, a fact which helped immediately to defuse the Arab-Jew antagonism over the incident.
Because the Israelis were now in possession of the Golan heights, our tour organisers had decided it was safe to visit the deserted Syrian camps on the heights. Our visit there gave us an opportunity to see the distant Mount Hermon and to pass through some Druze villages. However, I think of all the places I visited what remained most vividly in the my mind was our visit to Caesarea Philippi. Another notable occasion was to stand the harbour edge at Caesarea Maritima, while my friend Fred Bruce recounted the story of Paul’s visit there as recorded in Acts. On that trip I made many friends among the scholars who formed the party and found it unforgettable experience. I well remember having a protracted debate on the shores of the Sea of Tiberius about the 153 fishes mentioned in John 21. Various points of view were expressed about whether this number was to be taken literally or as symbolic.
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