On a gloriously sunny day in Charlotte, Dec. 2nd, the library I have built for over forty years, was dedicated at the Gordon-Conwell Charlotte campus in south Charlotte. The picture above is of course a NASA picture showing where in the world the light is visible from space. As it happened, I was preaching on John 1—’the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it’, so it was a singular providence that this picture had been left up on the screen on the chapel platform when I preached. 
This next picture is of a painting by my friend Leighton Ford, the brother in law of Billy Graham. Leighton is one of the trustees who was present for the library dedication.
Here is my Mom, Joyce Witherington, standing proudly at the entrance way into the collection.
Here are my beloved Loeb Classical Library volumes. It was hard to give them up. Most of them I bought second hand from the oldest continuously operating antiquarian bookstore in America— Brattle’s in downtown Boston.
Here you see Kittel and Barth’s Dogmatics, and the works of Luther, among other things. I must tell you a story about how I came to have the full set of Barth’s dogmatics. My wife and I heard that T+T Clark, the publishers of Barth in the English-speaking world, was having to move from one location on George Street in Edinburgh to another. So in 1978 we got on the train, road to Edinburgh, and we went up to the large door at No. 42 and knocked. The door was opened by a wee little Scotsman who asked “Are you here for the Books (pronounced ‘Booooches’)? When I told him we were, he ushered us in to a little alcove with a divan. He said ‘I’ll be right back,” and he went down some stairs into a basement. He began hauling up all of Barth’s Dogmatics, then a bunch of ICC commentaries, then McIntosh’s History of the Reformation. It filled up the whole counter of the divan! He then asked…. ‘will ye be havin ‘em’?’ I explained I was an impecunious doctoral student with little money and could not afford them all. ‘What about a pound a piece?’ My heart leapt and I said ‘I’LL BE HAVIN EM!’ And so it was Ann and I dragged two huge boxes of books to the train, and headed back to Durham. My 12 fellow doctoral students of Barrett at Durham could hardly believe my good fortune. A couple got on the train and went to Edinburgh hoping for a similar outcome. Alas, by then the books were gone. So the Dogmatics quite literally went from the publisher to me to a little collection in Charlotte.
Here is a nice display of some of the book awards I have won, and some framed pictures of other books I have written as well.
Here is the seminary chapel where I preached, with its wonderful painting of Jesus the sower. Notice the animals in the picture. It reminded me of my own Christmas cat (see below our Minny cat in a box of Christmas wrapping).
And here is the old boy himself with his mom (that fellow looks like he has had one too many turtle mocha’s from Caribou). A good time was had by all.
Your Mom looks great! Please give her my regards (I doubt she will remember me from our 3rd grade Sunday School class at Wesley!). Props to you for your gift; others will greatly benefit from your generosity.
Thanks Jim. I certainly remember you, and enjoyed getting to see you again when I preached at Wesley Memorial the last time.
Gordon Conwell is so blessed to have such a fine alum.
Congratulations! Have you read or used all those books? How many books do you still have in your own office?
Congratulations sir. About ten years ago I had a similar experience: I was filling the pulpit for a country church while they sought a pastor. A man called me to tell me that his brother had died and that he had “a few religious books” and I was welcome to come and take as many as I would like. To make a long story short, his collection was well over a thousand, including a great deal of primary source material. I tried not to be greedy, but looking back I should have taken better advantage of the offer. In all, over the years I would suppose that over half of my library has been donated. Jehovah-Jireh.
Hi Ben,
It is wonderful that you did this, but I am curious as to why you did now. You are young (60 is the new 40 for NT scholars!), so why did you not put it in your will? Also, how do you function without ready access to those tools?
Best,
Dave
Dr Witherington, this is so generous. Thank you for your ministry and for the books that YOU’VE written. I find your written work to be extremely helpful. Thank you.
David you are forgetting that I have Asbury Seminary and University’s library ready to hand, and also the U.K. library which has a nice classics collection. I have what I need now, and I have only dispensed with stuff I have finished using or are unlikely to use. I am not retiring.
BW3
Hi Again Ben,
Actually, I did think about those great resources, but still a bit different than having them at your fingertips.
It is most encouraging what you did, but I was curious if you were the kind of reader who tended to put marginalia in your books (per the example of John Adams) or one who tended not to do much of that (per the example of Thomas Jefferson).
Best,
Dave
Plenty of underlining and marginalia.
That makes it much more remarkable to me. In fact, I was just speaking in the New England area and now think my next trip must include a trip to see the Witherington Collection!
Hi Ben
How nice to see your Mom’s picture.She looks wonderful.And of course ,you too. Warm Greetings to you both from Turkey.
And what a great collection of books,great library!
Hi Mel: We miss you…… Merry Christmas….
Ben
It was wonderful seeing you again Dr. Witherington and meeting your mom. Our work was labor of love and appreciation of your life and ministry. Wishing you a very Merry Christmas.
Matt Wasielewski
It is my privilege to serve as library director at GCTS-Charlotte and have this wonderful research collection housed here.
Thanks Bob and Matt: Ya’ll are the best. Thanks for your hard work…. but we have lots more to process in due course