Resurrected writers: J. B. Phillips

The dead still speak
An occasional series by Maxwell Ryan

M

ore than 40 years ago I made a discovery that has affected my life ever since. I discovered The New Testament in Modern English, translated by John Bertram (J. B.) Phillips, an Anglican clergyman and author. My small pocket edition, published in 1960, has accompanied me to many countries.  As I look again at the underlined verses and the dates in the margin I am reminded of how often God has used this magnificent rendering of His word. When our four children “came of age” my wife and I presented each with a pocket copy (usually second hand) of Phillips NT.

How did the translation come about?  During World War 11, when he was vicar of a London church, Phillips discovered that the young people in the church did not understand the King James Version of the Bible. So he decided to translate the New Testament, using modern English rather than the Elizabethan English of the KJV. The preliminary work was done in periods he spent in bomb shelters during the London blitz. In 1947 Letters to Young Churches (the book of Acts) was published. In 1952 he added the Gospels and by 1958 the complete New Testament appeared, with subsequent revisions in 1961 and 1972.

He had difficulty finding a publisher but through the help of C. S. Lewis, publisher Geoffrey Bles took the risk, and a minor publishing revolution began. Lewis wrote to Phillips, “Thank you a hundred times. I thought I knew Colossians pretty well but your paraphrase made it far more significant – it was like seeing a familiar picture after it’s been cleaned. . . Of course you’ll be opposed tooth and nail by all the ‘cultured’ asses who say you’re only spoiling ‘the beauty’ of the A.V. – people who are always waffling about reverence.”

As a communicator with a passion for reaching “ordinary people”, Phillips knew how to write phrases that captured the essence of the message and presented it with elegance and clarity.  For example, Romans 8: 12 is rendered as: “So then, my brothers, you can see that we have no particular reason to feel grateful to our sensual nature, or to live life on the level of the instincts. Indeed that way of living leads to certain spiritual death. But if on the other hand you cut the nerve of your instinctive actions by obeying the Spirit, you are on the way to real living”.

And the essence of Romans 12: 2 is caught in these oft-quoted words: “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.”

As well as translating the New Testament, Phillips tried his hand at some of the Old Testament. In 1963 there appeared his version of Amos, Hosea, Micah and Isaiah 1 – 35. Though this is a lucid translation, Phillips – realizing he was not as gifted in understanding Hebrew as he was in koine Greek - wrote, “Many times I have found myself wondering why I ever agreed to attempt to translate four Old Testament prophets into the English of today.”

But Phillips was more than a Bible translator, he was also a highly gifted Christian journalist and author, with a passion to present the gospel clearly.  Among the most moving of his books is Ring of truth, subtitled A translator’s testimony. The author writes, in his foreword, “I do not write for scholars; they can look after themselves. For twenty-five years I have written for the ordinary man who is no theologian. Alas, today, he frequently gets the impression that the New Testament is no longer historically reliable… I am no anti-intellectual, but I say quite bluntly that some of the intellectuals who write so cleverly and devastatingly about the Christian faith appear to have no personal knowledge of the living God. They make sure they are never made ‘fools for Christ’s sake’, however many people’s faith they may undermine.

“I felt that it was high time that someone who has spent the best years of his life in studying both the New Testament and good modern communicative English, spoke out. I do not care a rap what the avant garde scholars say; I very much care what God says and does. This book is my testimony to the historicity and reliability of the New Testament.”

As one of the most popular and well-known Christian writers of his day, Phillips received adulation from many who marveled at his linguistic skills and his energy. To them he was a successful clergyman in his prime. Little did his admirers know that Phillips suffered from lifelong clinical depression that was at times incapacitating. His frank and revealing autobiography, The price of success, was published posthumously in 1984. The same year The Wounded Healer, by Phillips’ wife of many years, Vera, and their close friend the Rev Edwin Robertson, was also published. Together these books tell of the “other” life of a man who loved the public eye even as he suffered from the fame that followed him.

The authors write honestly, “While he was ministering to others he was himself powerfully afflicted by dark thoughts and mental pains. He knew anxiety and depression from which there was only temporary release. And while he never lost his faith in God, he never ceased to struggle against mental pain.”

Particularly moving is Phillips’ personal account of a near-death experience he had when he was in his twenties and that profoundly affected his life. The story is found in the February readings published in a book of daily readings taken from his writings, titled For this day.

J. B. Phillips (1906 - 1982) is one of my heroes of the faith. Twelve of his books, or books about him, have an honoured place on my bookshelves and his paraphrase of the New Testament is in constant use. Thank God it is still in print, though his 16 other books may be found only in used book shops or on the net.

His books include:

1952 - Your God is too small
1954 - Plain Christianity, Appointment with God, When God was man
1956 - New Testament Christianity, The Church under the cross
1957 - Is God at home? God with us
1959 - A man called Jesus (drama)
1960 - God our contemporary, Good News (thoughts on God and man)
1961 - The Christian year
1963 - Four Prophets
1967 - The ring of truth
1973 - Making men whole
1974 - Through the year with J. B. Phillips
1976 - Peter’s portrait of Jesus (a commentary)
1978 - The newborn Christian
1981 - The living gospels of Jesus Christ (illustrated)

Writer: Lieut.-Colonel Maxwell Ryan is a former Editor in Chief in Canada and the UK. In retirement he is a copy editor of theRubicon and the author of theRubicon series called Resurrected Writers.

3 Comments to Resurrected writers: J. B. Phillips

1. For my money, the Phillips translation is still my favourite. The prose is spare, clean and readable and achieves it objectives without dumbing things down.

   I highly recommend “The Ring of Truth” as a good insight into the joys and challenges of biblical interpretation and translation.

   I think that Phillip’s real gift was that as a journalist/author he is more readable than most biblical scholars, commentators and even preachers - he knew how to turn a phrase.

   As for his personal demons, well..they probably made him all the more effective at what he did. To quote the writer Paul Theroux:

   “…writing doesn’t come out of a literary background. It doesn’t come out of literary experience. A person becomes a writer because they’re deficient. They have problems. They’re crazy. They have unhappy families. They’re eccentric. And not because they’ve read a lot of books necessarily, but on the contrary - maybe they haven’t read enough books. There’s a strong irrationality about the writing life. Often a writer writes just to maintain their sanity. The way an addict needs to perform a certain ritual of mainlining, a writer kind of has to do it in order to keep his or her head on straight.”
Geoff Ryan on July 17th, 2008

2. my mum gave me my first ever copy of the JB Phillips and I still love to pick it up! I reckon that it is often overlooked by those around us!
Estelle on July 18th, 2008

3. In Maxwell Ryan’s piece on J. B. Phillips, he described the 1947 Letters to Young Churches as a rewriting of the book of Acts.

   Not so. “Letters” is the Epistles. “Acts” was published as to The Young Churches in Action.

   I enjoyed the article and share his enthusiasm for Phippips’ work.
Lois Oller Nasados on January 7th, 2009

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