"Fifty bob Dodd"

While doing some reading today on John's Gospel, I came across an enjoyable tidbit about the great New Testament scholar C. H. Dodd (1884-1973):

"[He] had gained notoriety among scholars as “fifty bob Dodd” for his first tome on John."

This is from G. L. Borchert, John 1–11 (The New American Commentary  Vol 25A; Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996): 40.  The reference is to Dodd's The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1958).

Borchert explains in a footnote that "When Dodd’s work was first published, scarcely any commentary at the time had cost fifty shillings, and for scholars to purchase the work was a reflection of the high regard they had for his significant work."

Having read this, I then googled "fifty bob Dodd" and it turned out that it was a googlewhack. Not for long, I'd guess, as this blogpost is now likely to come up.  I wonder how long that will take?

More from archive.org: C. H. Dodd

More from the Internet Archive:

C. H. Dodd, The Johannine Epistles (The Moffatt New Testament Commentary; New York, Evanston and London: Harper and Row, 1946)

C. H. Dodd, The Meaning of Paul for Today (New York: Georg H. Doran, 1920)

With each, there are multiple downloading possibilities, including txt and PDF, but I strongly recommend Flipbook, which is delightful -- just like turning the pages of the actual book.