Diogenesister:
Finkelstein10 minutes ago
Which is interesting given that at the time one would have thought that a wealthy man with an interest in the Bible would have attempted to study at a Seminary at the very least - even if he did not complete it once assured of his new found Biblical'truth'.
Except, of course, it wasn't new found, it was almost completely plagiarized from Adventist theology, Miller's work, John Aquilla et al.
Not to mention the fact there are doubts about Russell's initial wealth - until, that is, he got the 'keys to his own publishing company' (Finklestein, JW.D, 2015)
Unsurprising, then, they would not want subsequent followers studying a subject the founders did not understand. Even the WT "oracle" W.Franze was only a second year undergraduate of ancient (not Biblical)Greek when he left to become a WT colporteur, or book & tract salesman.
And you don't need a theology degree to sell books.
What becomes comparatively interesting is what WireRider pointed out that the WTS right to its very beginning inception did not have a academically trained bible theologian.
Russell was tied in with the International Correspondence School. The ICS' mantra was that you did not have to go to university - you could just study at home, with a focused course on whatever subject you wanted to gain knowledge of, without having to get a university degree.
The Studies in the Scriptures was the course designed by Russell to "ordain" the Bible Students. It was sold to the public in the same way the ICS's courses were - as a home study course. Later, once Russell died and the WTS was in the hands of Rutherford, a textbook writer for the ICS was one the editors for the Golden Age magazine - it was a slam dunk. The colportuers sold ICS courses right along with the WT literature.
