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| John Bertram Phillips (J.B.) |
What seems like five millennia ago, when I was a young college student, I came across the Philips translation of the New Testament. It was such 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.
