Tribute to Scholarship

By Lee Carter Maynard

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     I am not a scholar, nor was my father before me, but I write as one who appreciates scholarship. Scholars are those souls who have paid the price for great learning. I listened to a man in a piano concert and the thought came to me, "He gave up many youthful enjoyments to become so proficient." It would have been a great price for me to have paid. I enjoyed his rendition and appreciate what he has accomplished, but he makes me feel that I have contributed little to scholarship because I have paid such a meager price for what I have learned.

     A dear friend was told she had a disease which decreased her life expectancy to a very few years. She sought out a famous doctor who specialized in her affliction. She owes her life to this man who had given himself to thus help others.

     I marvel at the scholarship of the astronauts who have circled our planet and have landed on the moon. Hundreds of men devoted their lives to the study of mathematics and astronomy to make the feat possible. In all of these fields, men have simply devoted themselves to finding God's laws that control the universe. Man does not invent, he only discovers what God has placed here since the beginning.

     I have about twenty-five translations of God's word, and I love them all, but I had nothing to do with producing any of them from the original languages. If people had waited for me to make a translation of the word of God, they would have waited in vain, because I do not have the learning for such a task. What a debt I owe to these scholars.

     I love the old King James Version, and appreciate the scholars who could produce a volume with such great effect upon the lives of English-speaking people. Every one of them was an Episcopalian, fresh out of Romanism, yet this book has been our Christian text for three hundred years. Though it is a bit out of date, in scholarship, its message will tarry until the Lord comes.

     I have three or four Roman Catholic versions, and though they have all been translated from a translation, they have the same message from Genesis to Revelation. I could read from the Confraternity Edition of 1941 and few would know I was not reading from their favorite King James Version. I am anxious to secure a copy of the new Catholic version translated from original manuscripts.

     In all of the Bibles I own I do not know a single text that hinders the simple gospel story I first learned as a lad from our old family Bible. When I hear of cruel criticisms, and even burning of certain pages, I am convinced it is not the voice of scholars. The more I read my Bible the more convinced am I that the Holy Spirit has been present with the scholars, and that he has helped me to know the truth of God's message.

     Every Bible I possess has the same story of the creation and miracles of Eden. Every one tells of the flood, the tower of Babel, and the call of Abram. They all tell the story of Joseph and his brethren in Egypt, the leading of Moses, the law at Sinai, and the invasion of Canaan under Joshua. I thank God that they all contain the stories of Esther, Jonah, David, Isaiah, as well as the Psalms and Proverbs. All of them relate the story of John the Baptist, the virgin birth of Jesus, the choosing of the twelve, the sermon on the mount, the miracles, crucifixion, the resurrection, ascension, glorification and future coming of the Lord.

     I love God's word. I feel deeply indebted to the scholars who have produced these wonderful translations. We can never repay them for their years of study. I am not studying to search for misspelled words or typographical errors. I am not looking for isolated verses to prove the traditional doctrines of men. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there

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is liberty." Bitter envying, strife and confusion are not from above. They are earthly, sensual, and devilish.

     I am humbled as I contemplate the debt I owe to scholarship and wonder about myself when I become an interpreter of the translations, even though I could never have produced a translation. Sometimes we act as if we know more about the meaning of words than the translators. I am sure that I am not capable of criticizing or judging the translations.

     From these translations God has revealed to me by his Holy Spirit the true gospel of Jesus Christ from his birth in Bethlehem to the second coming. I will not be too concerned about the traditions or man-made laws which govern many congregations. Each translation that I own reveals the true church and that grace wherein we stand. There is little said about congregational government. The rituals, creeds, bylaws, liturgies and extracurricular practices are from that area where the Bible is silent. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."

     I have long since come to the conclusion that all of the strife, division and party spirit, cannot be laid at the feet of the scholars. It is our interpretation placed upon the translations that has caused the trouble. Too often we have sought to make the translation defend our traditional teachings of the party. If we accepted any of these translations in honesty and Christian love, with the help of God's Spirit we could all unite as brethren in the Lord and sit under the same vine and fig tree. Christian unity does not require exact duplicate congregations! There is a difference between conformity and community.