W. B. Godbey - Enter His Rest

as through all the centuries antedating the art of printing. We see God's wonderful providence in preserving it
during those years in that Old monastery, which was built there to commemorate the giving of the law. Thus He
offsets the two thousand errors which crept into the New Testament alone, and many more in the Old, as it is so
much larger. We now may rest assured that we have the full revelation which God made in its pristine purity,
and can feel that neither interpolations nor omissions can ever again contaminate this limped stream of living
water flowing out from beneath the throne of God “clear as crystal,” since the art of printing has forever
precluded the necessity of transcribing it any more.
As the publication of my Commentaries, expounding the Scriptures in the pure, original Greek, evoked a
universal clamor for a translation in which the people would have the New Testament in the charming beauty
and simplicity in which they had found it elucidated in the Commentaries, therefore, the clamor becoming not
only universal but importunate, Brother Knapp, as the spokesman of the Holiness people, the last time I ever
looked in his inspiring face, bidding him adieu for a midnight train at the close of his last campmeeting in this
world, continued importunately to plead with me to translate the New Testament, at the same time offering me a
thousand dollars for that arduous work. When I bade him adieu, he still held my hand observing; “I am never
going to let go your hand till you promise me to translate the New Testament.” Then I acquiesced, went at it and
was in the midst of the work when the telegram arrived calling me to his funeral. As he was twenty years my
junior, I expected him to preach my funeral. Thus you see, in the case of the Commentaries, God used that
paragon saint to bring into the world the literal translation of the manuscript through my humble instrumentality.
It has received a wonderful circulation in a short time, actually girdling the globe. Since my arrival from my last
tour, in one mail I sent away ninety-two copies to India.
There are two reasons why none of the people who do not read Greek like English (and but one in a million
does) cannot afford to do without this translation. The first is, because it is the only translation in the world in
which you get just what the Lord says, all He says, and no more, and that is what you all so imperatively need
and cannot afford to do without. The other reason is because it harmonizes the Gospels in such a manner that at
a single look you see everything the Lord said and did. Besides it gives you the Lord's entire ministry, arranged
in topics as they transpired in consecutive order. Some things none but Matthew wrote, others Mark alone
reveals, in others we must depend on Luke alone for the blessed revelation, and meanwhile John much of the
time stands alone. Some things two of them give, others three, and still others the entire four. In the harmony,
you have everything whether by one, two, three or four, all exhibited before the eye at a single look, everything
the Lord said and did. And at the same time the topics are so arranged in consecutive order that you will all the
time know where you are and at what date in the Lord's ministry. Therefore the harmony is absolutely
indispensable to enable you with full intelligibility and efficiency to study His wonderful ministry.
Robert Ingersoll, the great infidel, was truly an intellectual giant, towering among his peers, primus inter pares,
“first among his comrades,” while he utterly discarded the Bible, believing not a word of it, and consequently
freely and even recklessly criticized Moses, the prophets and Apostles. He broke down in his attempt to criticize
Jesus, calling Him, “The youngest Jew,” (certainly He was the youngest Author in the Bible, only thirty-three
when they killed Him. At that age I had never dreamed of writing a book Bob said so significantly, “That young
Jew just beats them all.”
The longer I live the more profoundly I appreciate all the works of Jesus which have come down to me in the
blessed Volume of Truth. Paul is deep, but Jesus still deeper. Peter is fire, but Jesus is dynamite. Take the
Harmony in which you see all His utterances on every subject, arranged in parallel columns, and ask the Holy
Spirit to help you to apprehend the deep truths He communicated.
As for instance when the Pharisees, who were the orthodox wing of the anti-administration party and most
inveterately opposed to Roman rule, united with the Herodians, who were the Roman party, in order to lasso
Jesus and get Him into trouble. Approaching Him together they asked Him the insidious question, “Tell us, Shall
we pay tribute to Caesar, or no?” If he had said “Yes,” they, the Pharisees, were just ready to have Him arrested
and arraigned before the Sanhedrin for disloyalty to the theocracy. If He had said “No,” then the Herodians were
ready to have Him arrested and brought before Pilate for disloyalty to Caesar. Therefore, they felt perfectly sure
that they would gore Him with one or the other horn of the dilemma. But you see He simply asked them to hand
Him the coin which they used to pay tribute, the denarius, the most common in circulation at that time, and