“My favorite moment in teaching is when students realize that even though the Old Testament is thousands of years old, the texts talk about subjects that are still very important to us today,” said Saner. “In these moments students learn that reading these old texts is still a crucial formative and informative practice for the community of faith today.”

A joint venture

Saner is the first faculty to be an official joint hire between the undergraduate and EMS.

“During my campus visit, I was impressed and stimulated by the engagement of faculty, students and staff with my research and teaching, which suggests the learning environments of EMS and the EMU Bible and religion department are energetic and exciting,” said Saner. “I’m very excited to get to teach both seminary students and undergraduates, because seminary and college students ask different sorts of questions.”

, Bible and religion chair, praised Saner as an Old Testament scholar, “capable of technical exegesis as well as theological interpretation of scripture. She is also a gifted theologian who has written on both sixteenth century Anabaptism and on Augustine. That kind of range is rare anywhere in the academy, not just at EMS.”

Saner will enhance EMS’s leading-edge vision, said , vice president and seminary dean. “Hiring Andrea makes even clearer that EMS is entering an exciting era of developing a core faculty team that integrates the wisdom, experience and mentoring gifts of our longer-career faculty and the energies and visions of early-career faculty,” he said. “I see this contributing to leading-edge perspectives at a time of major transitions in culture, church and higher education.”

Modeling peacemaking

Saner is enthusiastic about the Old Testament’s lessons pertaining to justice: “The Torah gives provision for the vulnerable in society, and there is a consistent witness in the Old Testament for the need to trust God rather than human, military strength. But at the same time the Old Testament may not conform entirely to what a twenty-first-century Christian might expect a pacifist text to look like.

“Education in peacemaking is not only about what one teaches, but how one teaches; a good classroom is one in which students respect one another’s viewpoints and experiences, especially when they disagree,” she said, adding that she will be “glad to be at an institution that is committed to following Jesus Christ in faithful witness, compassionate service and nonviolent living.”

Saner graduated from Messiah College in 2005 and earned her master of arts in theological studies, Biblical theology and ethics from Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in 2008. She is finishing a PhD in Old Testament at Durham University in the United Kingdom. Her dissertation is titled “YHWH, the Trinity, and the Literal Sense: Theological Interpretation of Exodus 3:13-15” She will begin at EMU and EMS in August, 2013.

G. Irvin (“G.I.”) Lehman, professor emeritus of Old Testament at EMU.

That was one of many tributes paid to G. Irvin (“G.I.”) Lehman at a recognition and retirement dinner held in his honor May 1, 1980 at EMU.

Dr. Lehman died Monday, Aug. 27, at Oak Lea Nursing Home in Harrisonburg, Va. He was 92.

Lehman, a professor emeritus of Old Testament at EMU, taught at the former Eastern Mennonite School, 1940-41, and rejoined the EMU Bible and religion department in 1952, teaching Old Testament courses there until 1976. In 1965, he was also named to the Eastern Mennonite Seminary faculty and later taught there full time until retirement.

“G. Irvin was famous for delivering many pithy one-liners in class, one of which was, ‘He (or she!) who throws mud always loses ground.’ Great advice for future pastors!” said EMU President Loren Swartzendruber.

“Dr. Lehman was one of my favorite college profs,” said Jim Bishop, public information officer at EMU. “He brought what I perceived as dusty Old Testament text and characters to life even as he brightened that dingy basement classroom where he held forth in the old administration building.

“I’ll never forget him saying, ‘Before you act, consider first your motives and the consequences,'” Bishop added.

A native of Lancaster, Pa., Lehman was a 1935 graduate of Eastern Mennonite School. He completed his undergraduate studies at Elizabethtown (PA) College and earned a BD degree at Eastern Baptist Seminary, an STM from Hartford Theological Foundation and MA and PhD degrees from New York University.

Lehman began his educational career as a teacher in the Pennsylvania public school system in 1935. His extensive service overseas included directing a medical relief unit in Nazareth, Ethiopia; and teaching English at American University, Beirut, Lebanon; and at Anatolia College, Salonika, Greece.

He led numerous study tours and seminars in the Middle East over the years and lectured widely on his experiences there.

Lehman served on an editorial committee in the preparation of the “New International Bible,” a modern English translation sponsored by the New York International Bible Society.

He was a member of many national and and international learned societies and served as president of the National Association of Professors of Hebrew.

Locally, he served many years as chairman or a board member of the Harrisonburg Salvation Army. He was a member of Park View Mennonite Church.

He was proceeded in death by his wives, Edith Vanderploeg Lehman and Verna Yeager Lehman. Surviving are three sons, George Nathan, Peter Daniel and Timothy Joseph Lehman; a daughter, Eunice L. Kerbs; two sisters and four grandchildren.

Funeral services were held Sept. 1 at Park View Mennonite Church, with burial in Weavers Church cemetery west of Harrisonburg.

Memorial contributions may be sent to Mennonite Central Committee, PO Box 500, Akron, PA 17501.