Value of a PhD

There are many doctorates out there but I am talking about earned doctorate over a submission of a substantial original book-length thesis. My PhD thesis has a total of 150,000 words with 50,000 of them as footnotes. For both main text and footnotes in terms of word permissible I have reached the limits. My T & T Clark publishers basically suggested that I reduced one chapter of 40 pages but at the end without alteration or reducing any words it was published. I was a pastor then and I told my editors that I simply had not the time to make any revision let alone deciding what to take out from my thesis. But I have been reading about the worth of a PhD and not because of self doubt but due to my forthcoming 15th year anniversary of the conferment of my PhD.
If it is for monetary gains then my PhD now pales into the shadows. I earned much less now than my job as pastor 12 years ago. It will probably take one if not two generatione of my denomination to appreciate a truly recognised doctorate degree. Two years ago at Ehwa Women’s University, South Korea the Vice President of the Korean Society of  New Testament mentioned that there were 300 PhD holders in New Testament in South Korea but in Malaysia there could be only three. If we want to be the head and not the tail there is much catching up to do. Out of the several articles that I read about the value of a PhD I was most blessed to read that the person with a PhD is a specialist in his field in which he is passionate about and I have no doubt that the drive that keeps me going is the passion for biblical studies, the Bible - God’s eternal Word.