{{Short description|English priest and Bible translator}} {{morerefs|date=November 2020}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}} {{Infobox person/Wikidata|fetchwikidata=ALL}} '''John Bertram Phillips''' or '''J. B. Phillips''' (16 September 1906 – 21 July 1982) was an English Bible translator, author and Anglican clergyman. He is most noted for his ''The New Testament in Modern English.''
==Early life== Phillips was born in Barnes, which was then in Surrey but is now in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. He was educated at Emanuel School in London and graduated with an Honours Degree in Classics and English from Emmanuel College, Cambridge. After training for ordination at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, he was ordained a clergyman in the Church of England in 1930 (both deacon and priest in the same year).<ref name="auto">''Crockford's Clerical Directory, 1973-74'', 85th Edition, p 757.</ref>
==Career== During World War II, while vicar of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Lee, London (1940-44),<ref name="auto"/> he found the young people in his church did not understand the Authorised Version of the Bible. He used the time in the bomb shelters during the London Blitz to begin a translation of the New Testament into modern English, starting with the Epistle to the Colossians. The results appealed to the young people who found it easier to understand.<ref name="auto1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.ukpressonline.co.uk/ukpressonline/view/pagview/ChTm_1982_07_30_004|title=''Church Times'': "J. B. Phillips: a pioneer in modern Bible translation", 30 July 1982, p 4|access-date=25 February 2021}}</ref> Encouraged by their feedback, after the war Phillips continued to translate the rest of the New Testament into colloquial English.
=== New testament translation === Portions of the New Testament were published after the war, starting with ''Letters to Young Churches'' in 1947, which received C. S. Lewis' backing.<ref name="auto1"/> In 1952 he added the Gospels. In 1955 he added the Acts of the Apostles and entitled it ''The Young Church in Action''. In 1957 he added the Book of Revelation. The final compilation was published in 1958 as ''The New Testament in Modern English'' for which he is now best known. This was revised and republished in 1961 and then again in 1972. ''Time Magazine'' wrote of Phillips, "...he can make St. Paul sound as contemporary as the preacher down the street. Seeking to transmit freshness and life across the centuries". In his Preface to the Schools Edition of his 1959 version of the New Testament, Phillips states that he "wrote for the young people who belonged to my youth club, most of them not much above school-leaving age, and I undertook the work simply because I found that the Authorised Version was not intelligible to them".
He talked of the revelation he received as he translated the New Testament, describing it as "extraordinarily alive", unlike any experience he had with non-scriptural ancient texts. He referred to the scriptures speaking to his life in an "uncanny way", similarly to the way the author of Psalm 119 talks.{{citation needed|date=September 2016}}
Phillips often grouped verses of the New Testament together into longer paragraphs cutting across the individual verses of traditional translations: see for example {{bibleverse||John|8:27-30|PHILLPS}}: {{quote|They did not realise that he was talking to them about the Father. So Jesus resumed, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will realise that I am who I say I am, and that I do nothing on my own authority but speak simply as my Father has taught me. The one who sent me is with me now: the Father has never left me alone for I always do what pleases him.” And even while he said these words, many people believed in him.}}
=== Old testament translation === Phillips also translated parts of the Old Testament. In 1963 he published translations of Isaiah 1-39, Hosea, Amos, and Micah. This was titled ''Four Prophets: Amos, Hosea, First Isaiah, Micah: A Modern Translation from the Hebrew''; he did not translate the Old Testament any further.
==Death== Phillips died in Swanage in Dorset, England in 1982.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?r=268733831:4248&d=bmd_1559549199|title=FreeBMD Entry Info|website=www.freebmd.org.uk}}</ref>
==Bibliography== *''Quiet Times. A Book for Private Prayer'' 1938 *''Reality in Religion'' 1938 *''A Translation of the New Testament Epistles'' 1947 *''Making Men Whole'' 1952 (revised 1955) *''The Gospels in Modern English'' 1952 *''Your God is Too Small'' 1953 *''Plain Christianity: and Other Broadcast Talks'' 1954 *''Appointment with God: Some Thoughts on Holy Communion'' 1954 *''The Young Church in Action'' 1955 *''When God was Man'' 1955 *''The Church Under the Cross'' 1956 *''New Testament Christianity'' 1956 *''Letters to Young Churches'' 1957 *''The Inside Story: In Modern English as told in Luke, John, Acts and Romans'' 1957 *''St. Luke's Life of Christ'' 1957 *''God With Us. A Message for Christmas.'' 1957 *''Is God at Home?'' 1957 *''The Book of Revelation'' 1957 *''The New Testament in Modern English'' 1958 *''Backwards to Christmas [First published in "The life of faith".]'' 1958 *''God our Contemporary'' 1960 *''New Testament Readings for Schools'' 1960 *''The Christian Year: The Prayer Book Collects'' 1961 *''Four Prophets Amos, Hosea, First Isaiah, Micah; a modern translation from the Hebrew,'' 1963 *''Good News: Thoughts on God and Man.'' 1963 *''The Ring of Truth: A translator's testimony'' 1967 *''Jesus Christ and Him Crucified; A Commentary on I Corinthians 2'' 1973 *''Through the year with J.B. Phillips : devotional readings for every day'' 1974 (Renamed ''365 meditations by J.B. Phillips for this day'' in 1975) *''Peter's Portrait of Jesus: A Commentary on the Gospel of Mark and the Letters of Peter'' 1976 *''The Newborn Christian: 114 Readings from J. B. Phillips'' 1978 *''A Man Called Jesus: the Gospel Story in 26 Short Plays'' 1978 *''The Living Gospels of Jesus Christ'' 1981 *''The Price of Success'' autobiography, 1984 *"The Problems of Making a Contemporary Translation", ''The Churchman'' (June 1961), 88–95; reprinted ''The Bible Translator'', 16:1 (1965), 25–32.
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[http://www.bible-researcher.com/phillips.html Analysis and side by side comparisons with other New Testament translations] *[http://www.bible-researcher.com/rieu.html "Translating the Gospels: A Discussion Between Dr. E.V. Rieu and the Rev. J.B. Phillips." The Bible Translator 6/4 (October 1955), pp. 150-159] *[http://www.ccel.org/bible/phillips/JBPhillips.htm The Works of J B Phillips]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips, John Bertram}} Category:1906 births Category:1982 deaths Category:Translators of the Bible into English Category:People from Barnes, London Category:People educated at Emanuel School Category:20th-century English translators Category:20th-century English Anglican priests Category:Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge Category:Alumni of Ridley Hall, Cambridge Category:20th-century British biblical scholars