OPINION ABOUT OLD TESTAMENT - THE RING OF TRUTH - 6th of several

John Bertram Phillips (J.B.)

As a young college student, I came across the Philips translation of the New Testament. It was novel then, new, a refreshing way to read scripture. It was the product of John Bertram Phillips or, J. B. Phillips, who was an English Bible scholar, translator, author and clergyman. He learned that the young people that attended Church of the Good Shepherd in London UK, where he was minister, did not understand the King James Authorized Version of the Bible. During the London blitz of World War II, he spent hours in bomb shelters, time which he used to begin a translation of the New Testament into modern English, starting with the Epistle to the Colossians. His results had great appeal for his young people who found it easier to understand. Encouraged by this, following the war, he continued his rendering of the New Testament into colloquial English, completed it and it was published with great commercial success.
Because J.B. Phillips had deep concern for Christians whose faith was being eroded by the dissemination of views of some modern scholars that challenged the accuracy and reliability of the Bible, he wrote a testimonial called, ‘The Ring of Truth.’ In it Phillips told how he made exciting discoveries during his translation work, that convinced him that what was written in the gospels had the ring of truth. Furthermore he demonstrated why he remained convinced about the validity of the entire Bible and its relevance for contemporary life despite the efforts of some modern scholars to question the themes and tones of the Bible.
In ‘The Ring of Truth,’ Phillips told the story of a radio interview with the distinguished classical scholar, Dr. E. V. Rieu, a man who translated Homer into very modern English for the "Penguin Classics". Rieu was sixty when the same firm invited Rieu, a lifelong agnostic, to translate the Gospels. Rieu’s son remarked: "It will be interesting to see what Father makes of the four Gospels. It will be even more interesting to see what the four Gospels make of Father." One year later, Dr. Rieu was convinced and converted and he joined the Church of England. Phillips asked Rieu, "Did you not get the feeling that the whole material was extraordinarily alive?" Rieu replied, "I got the deepest feeling. My work changed me. I came to the conclusion that these words bear the seal of the Son of Man and God. And they're the Magna Carta of the human spirit."

Phillips concluded, "I found it particularly thrilling to hear a man who is a scholar of the first rank, as well as a man of wisdom and experience, openly admitting that these words written long ago were alive with power. They bore to him as to me, the ring of truth."

The tone of the edition is illustrated by his translation of John 3:16, "For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that every one who believes in him shall not be lost, but should have eternal life."

The best known, and often quoted, passage from the translation is a portion of Romans 12:2, "Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould."

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