Bitzer was a banker!!!

As I sit here translating Zechariah from the Hebrew for university (as you do), I'm listening to a sermon on preaching by John Hosier. He is speaking about a book by John Piper called Brothers, We are not Professionals. In one chapter of the book, Piper cautions pastors and teachers in the church against the laziness of not learning the original languages of the Bible. It seems like a provoking read and, in my view, the quote below is one which all elders, and aspiring elders, preachers and teachers should read carefully before they dismiss the need and usefulness of learning at least the basics of Biblical Greek and Hebrew. John Piper writes of a layman called Bitzer. He was not a pastor, an elder or a preacher - he was a banker. With characteristic panache, Piper rants:

His name was Heinrich Bitzer. He was a banker. A banker! Brothers, must we be admonished by the sheep as to what our responsibility is as shepherds? Evidently so. For we are surely not admonishing and encouraging each other to press on in Greek and Hebrew. And most seminaries, evangelical as well as liberal, have communicated by their curriculum emphases that learning Greek and Hebrew may have some value for a few rare folk but is optional for the pastoral ministry. 

I have a debt to pay to Heinrich Bitzer, and I would like to discharge it by exhorting all of us to ponder his thesis: "The more a theologian detaches himself from the basic Hebrew and Greek text of Holy Scripture, the more he detaches himself from the source of real theology! And real theology is the foundation of a fruitful and blessed ministry".

 Bitzer studied Greek and Hebrew - and he was a banker!