# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1950_S1312
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

838 MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS

1. The projects to receive attention;

2, The amount of money to be allocated to each project;

3. A system of general supervision and r i

of the funds allocated. ° “reporting on the me

In its second meeting the Committee agreed that it would be
desirable to enlarge its membership. Dr. Behnken therefore was
asked to enlarge the Committee. An invitation for suggestions
to suitable research projects was inserted in the church papers
The Committee also agreed to develop a project brief for more
expeditious handling of projects suggested and recommended to it.

The enlarged Committee, including Professor Martin Coyner
and Pastor Roger Sommer, met on December 6, 1948, to consider
the proposed project brief and to take up certain of the recom-
mendations and suggestions brought before the Committee. A re-
vised project brief was adopted by the Committee at this meeting
This brief was sent to every person and group which had re-
sponded to the notices in the church papers,

A total of 46 projects have received the attention of the Com-
mittee. Of these the following 11 have been approved:

1. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament

This recommendation came to the attention of the Committee
through the faculty of Concordia Seminary in St. Louis and also
by way of a suggestion made by Pastor William F. Beck of
St.Louis. The proposal, as originally submitted, envisioned a
straight translation of a third (1937) edition of Bauer’s Woerter-
buch. Further inquiry, however, revealed that a fourth edition
‘of this work would soon be available and that the University of
Chicago had negotiated for the rights of translation to the new
edition.

From later developments it became evident that if a Greek-
English lexicon of the New Testament were to be produced, it
would require a total of four years of concentrated effort and con-
tinuous research by a group of responsible and reputable scholars.
This whole project was put under the direction of Dr. William
Arndt of Concordia Seminary. His staff is headed by Dr. F. W.
Gingrich of the University of Chicago. The Committee on Allocat-
ing C.T.O. Funds for Scholarly Research set aside a total of
$80,000 to this project. This sum includes salaries for an ade-
quate staff, the salary of a part-time substitute for Dr. Arndt
at the Seminary, and the price of publication. To implement this
project a contract was drawn up between the University of Chi-
cago and Synod. This contract was signed by both parties on
November 30, 1949. ,

MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS 839

2. A Luther Anthology

The Pastoral Conference of greater Milwaukee and the faculty
of Concordia College in that city submitted a suggestion for the
-preparation of selections, in translation, from Luther’s major
zwritings. This project involved the allocation of the sum of
$12,000. Arrangements were made with Concordia College, Mil-
’ waukee, Wis., to secure the services of Professor Ewald Plass for
’ this work.

ee This undertaking will require at least four years to complete.
<® The anthology, as proposed, will contain some 3,600 passages. The
* volume is expected to include cross-references and necessary in-
troductions, explanations, and bibliographical notations.

3. A Restudy of Marriage, Divorce, and Family Life

This proposal came as a suggestion from the Board for Par-
ish Education and the Committee on Family Life. It required the
allocation of $25,000. Since Synod itself had resolved on a pro-
gram of this kind, the Committee’s action consisted primarily in
making the necessary funds available to the proper people.

This project is concerned with a study of all Bible passages
and Church essays in the field of marriage, divorce, and family
life. It was intended to analyze modern views and practices, to
examine recent studies in psychology, sociology, medicine, law,
and economics. It includes, moreover, a survey of the most effec-
tive ways and means by which adequate information may be given
to clergy and laity. This work is designed to undergird the Chris-
tian concept of marriage and the family by developing a construc-
tive program to avoid marriage failures and to build happy Chris-
tian homes.

4. Reprint of Babylonian Genesis

This particular project of reprinting the book Babylonian
Genesis by Dr. Alex Heidel, University of Chicago, came before
the Committee as part of a larger proposal. The Committee did
not feel that the larger project would meet any great need within
our Church, but that a reprint of the Babylonian Genesis would
be of help to interested people within the Church. The Committee
resolved to subsidize the printing of a revised edition at a cost of
$1,000.

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5. European Theological Literature

In the fall of 1948 the faculty of Concordia Seminary in St. Louis
submitted a proposal that part of the Scholarly Research Funds
be devoted to the purchase of the best in German and Scandinavian
theological literature published during the last thirty years. This
project grew out of the experiences at Bad Boll. These confer-