Obituary for James Julius Scott, Jr.
James Julius Scott, Jr. was made whole in heaven on July 16, 2020. He was married to Florence Richardson Scott for nearly 62 years, father to Mary Scott Smith (Greg), Julie Scott Fox (Rick), and James Julius Scott III (Destiny), and “Papa” to eight grandchildren, Anna, Lilly, Julia, Leah, and Grayson Smith, and Rebecca, Hannah-Kate, and Caleb Fox.
Julius, also known as “JJ”, was born to Julius, Sr and Laverne on February 9, 1934 and raised on a farm in Scottdale, Georgia with his brother David and sister Mary. Around the age of eight, Julius accepted Jesus as his Savior, to whom he clung all his life.
As a graduate of Wheaton College in Illinois, Julius became assistant to the pastor of Westminster Presbyterian church in Atlanta, GA, his future father-in-law John R. Richardson and the first director of Camp Westminster. There he got to know Dr. Richardson’s’s daughter, Florence, and promptly asked her to be his secretary as well as camp pianist. By the end of the summer, they were engaged. Florence was his “best friend” and in a letter written 34 years after they married, he described her as “at the human level...God’s greatest gift.”
After pastoring a Brandon, MS church for a few years, he began graduate study in Manchester, England, where their first daughter Mary was born. While finishing the difficult PhD program, he built the Bible department at Belhaven College in Jackson, Mississippi, and welcomed their daughter Julie. Over his career of teaching New Testament studies and theology, Jewish background of the New Testament, early church history, and hermeneutics, he taught at Western Kentucky University, during which time their son James was born, and his longest tenure was at his alma mater, Wheaton, from 1977-2000. Julius wrote two books about his field of study, Jewish Backgrounds of the New Testament and New Testament Theology: A New Study of the Thematic Structure of the New Testament.
Julius loved the Bible and teaching it. A former student recalled that in a passionate moment of teaching, he jumped on his desk and ripped off his tie, revealing it to be a clip on, the only type of tie he would tolerate. Mary remembers that years later, Julius once spoke to a group of homeschool students about the Bible and archeology, holding his Bible close and saying, “I LOVE my Bible!”
In recent years, as Julius’s mind was starting to dim and communication began to be more difficult, he would want to tell people who didn’t know him at a younger age something about who he was. He would always begin with his struggles in elementary school, which he later found were due to dyslexia. He would trace that thread through his education and would culminate with the day he first stepped, nervous and uptight, into the classroom as professor. He would say that when he opened class in prayer and then started teaching, he felt the spirit of God on him and knew this was what he was called to do--“like a puzzle piece snapping into place.”
After his retirement in 2000, Julius and Florence traveled to countries such as Costa Rica, Egypt, and Malta to teach short-term classes. He also maintained a library of biblical and theological studies materials, which grew to 6800 books and 1700 periodicals, now donated to Reformed Theological Seminary - Houston. He passed on to his eight grandchildren his love of ice cream, from homemade grape ice cream to Klondike bars.
Julius was a humble man and very tenderhearted, often weeping when he talked about his Savior. We rejoice that he is with his parents, sister Mary, many of the close friends he made throughout the years, and most of all, his Jesus. There will be a family burial at Decatur Cemetery in Decatur, GA on July 21. A memorial service will be held on July 23 at 10:30 a.m. at Christ Community Church in Montreat, NC. A live stream of the memorial service will be available at the church website: https://www.cccmontreat.org/
Memorial contributions may be directed to Wycliffe USA account number: 213423, Austin and Margrit Hale in memory of Dr. J. Julius Scott for the publication costs of the Newar Bible. https://www.wycliffe.org/donate
Julius, also known as “JJ”, was born to Julius, Sr and Laverne on February 9, 1934 and raised on a farm in Scottdale, Georgia with his brother David and sister Mary. Around the age of eight, Julius accepted Jesus as his Savior, to whom he clung all his life.
As a graduate of Wheaton College in Illinois, Julius became assistant to the pastor of Westminster Presbyterian church in Atlanta, GA, his future father-in-law John R. Richardson and the first director of Camp Westminster. There he got to know Dr. Richardson’s’s daughter, Florence, and promptly asked her to be his secretary as well as camp pianist. By the end of the summer, they were engaged. Florence was his “best friend” and in a letter written 34 years after they married, he described her as “at the human level...God’s greatest gift.”
After pastoring a Brandon, MS church for a few years, he began graduate study in Manchester, England, where their first daughter Mary was born. While finishing the difficult PhD program, he built the Bible department at Belhaven College in Jackson, Mississippi, and welcomed their daughter Julie. Over his career of teaching New Testament studies and theology, Jewish background of the New Testament, early church history, and hermeneutics, he taught at Western Kentucky University, during which time their son James was born, and his longest tenure was at his alma mater, Wheaton, from 1977-2000. Julius wrote two books about his field of study, Jewish Backgrounds of the New Testament and New Testament Theology: A New Study of the Thematic Structure of the New Testament.
Julius loved the Bible and teaching it. A former student recalled that in a passionate moment of teaching, he jumped on his desk and ripped off his tie, revealing it to be a clip on, the only type of tie he would tolerate. Mary remembers that years later, Julius once spoke to a group of homeschool students about the Bible and archeology, holding his Bible close and saying, “I LOVE my Bible!”
In recent years, as Julius’s mind was starting to dim and communication began to be more difficult, he would want to tell people who didn’t know him at a younger age something about who he was. He would always begin with his struggles in elementary school, which he later found were due to dyslexia. He would trace that thread through his education and would culminate with the day he first stepped, nervous and uptight, into the classroom as professor. He would say that when he opened class in prayer and then started teaching, he felt the spirit of God on him and knew this was what he was called to do--“like a puzzle piece snapping into place.”
After his retirement in 2000, Julius and Florence traveled to countries such as Costa Rica, Egypt, and Malta to teach short-term classes. He also maintained a library of biblical and theological studies materials, which grew to 6800 books and 1700 periodicals, now donated to Reformed Theological Seminary - Houston. He passed on to his eight grandchildren his love of ice cream, from homemade grape ice cream to Klondike bars.
Julius was a humble man and very tenderhearted, often weeping when he talked about his Savior. We rejoice that he is with his parents, sister Mary, many of the close friends he made throughout the years, and most of all, his Jesus. There will be a family burial at Decatur Cemetery in Decatur, GA on July 21. A memorial service will be held on July 23 at 10:30 a.m. at Christ Community Church in Montreat, NC. A live stream of the memorial service will be available at the church website: https://www.cccmontreat.org/
Memorial contributions may be directed to Wycliffe USA account number: 213423, Austin and Margrit Hale in memory of Dr. J. Julius Scott for the publication costs of the Newar Bible. https://www.wycliffe.org/donate