I didn’t know that he was still alive! It seemed appropriate that I would receive the news in Dr. Gaffin’s class. He was a great proponent of Ridderbos’ work and wrote about it extensively. You could tell that he was saddened by the loss and thankful to the Lord that He gave the church such a brilliant New Testament scholar and theologian. Ridderbos, along with Vos, furthered our understanding of Pauline theology and biblical theology. He was one of the leading lights in Pauline theology in the last century.
Ridderbos wrote Coming of the Kingdom which is an excellent book on the teaching of the kingdom in the Gospels. Christ’s teaching was kingdom-centered and Ridderbos does an excellent job demonstrating that. It is a great analysis of the Gospels and I highly recommend it (it’s a tough read).
And he wrote Paul: An Outline of His Theology which as you can tell from the title is about Pauline theology. I’ve only gotten through the introduction of this book (I keep losing it) but I have to read it this semester so I will be able to get past that point.
He’s also wrote many commentaries and other books related to New Testament and canon issues.
What is amazing to me is that one who is so well known and who has made such a huge impact on the life of the church would not even rate a mention in some news source? I couldn’t find anything. Only on blogs. And I even checked the news sites in the Netherlands but couldn’t find anything.

The eminent Dutch New Testament scholar Herman Ridderbos passed away last Thursday at the age of 98.

His words and thoughts will bless more people in the coming years, than those whose death are plastered all over the newspapers, TV, magazines and the Internet.