The New Testament in Modern English
Revised Student Edition
J.B. Phillips
Preface to the Student Edition
When I began the work of translating Paul’s epistles in 1941 I certainly had no idea either that my efforts would be published or that I should eventually translate the whole New Testament. I 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 Authorized Version was not intelligible to them. My primary aim was not in any sense to compete with the version of 1611, but to communicate to young people inspired truths of which they were almost entirely ignorant.
It is, then, with the greatest possible pleasure that I welcome this schools edition of my whole translational work. It is as though the wheel had come fuel circle after eighteen years and once more I find myself using modern language to communicate ancient truths to young people.
Before ordination I had myself a short experience as a schoolmaster, and in each of the four parishes in which I have served there have been Church schools and sometimes State schools as well. My contact with these schools has greatly increased my respect for the teaching profession, not least for those who undertake the extremely difficult task of conveying the meaning of essential Christianity to the young mind. In my view we are starting off on the wrong foot if, in teaching Scripture, we insist on using language which is nearly three hundred and fifty years old. I would myself be among the first to admire and marvel at the beauty, the majesty and the moving rhythms of that version to which we of older generations are accustomed. But if the true meaning and relevance of the New Testament message is blunted and masked by archaic language, then I think we must, at least in our first approach, use language which is intelligible to modern children. There is a peculiar danger here: if school prayers and scripture readings are invariably couched in outdated language, then it is very unlikely that the children will think of God as in any sense contemporary, and it is probably that they will tend to regard the New Testament story as a holy legend far away and long ago. If we are to help in the development of Christian citizens for the future it is imperative that we teach the New Testament as containing spiritual essentials for modern living. If this book helps that admirable army of teachers in the vital art of communicating what I believe to be the most urgent to communicate, then one of my greatest hopes will be realized.
May I add a short practical note? In order to make this translation more useful for schools the verse numbers of the Authorized Version have been printed in the margin. There are some cases where the sense of two or three verses has been combined, and a few where, for the sake of clarity, a phrase from oe verse has been transferred to another. Here the Authorised Version verse numbers have been retained, but it will be quite obvious what has happened. In some instances, particularly in The Gosphels, a verse will be found to be omitted altogether in my version. The reason for this is simply that I have worked from later and more reliable Texts than those available to the translators of 1611. One verse has ben transferred, that is, Revelation 18, 14, and here there is an explanatory footnote.
J.B. Phillips
1959