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New Testament in Modern English Student Edition ReviewIn an age when there are nearly twice as many new Bible translations released in the last forty years as in the previous four hundred before that, it is easy for people to get confused. Given that almost all of those many Bibles released in the last forty years are paraphrases, why not skip the rest and go with the very first modern paraphrase, J. B. Phillips' "The New Testament in Modern English"?
Written in 1958, the Phillips Translation is, quite simply, one of the most dynamic and energetic Bible translations ever put on paper. It seethes with action, power, and transcendence. Jesus is shown as fully man (and yet fully God) in a way that makes us love Him even more. Phillips captures Jesus in such a way that we truly recognize Him as our brother, but always as our Lord, too.
But Phillips gives us more than simply a passionate Jesus of the Gospels, he gives us the gentle, yet forceful Epistles, emphasizing the fact that they were truly pastoral letters. He phrases things so beautifully that they come alive and feed the heart. For instance, contrast his translation of Romans 12:1-2 with other recent paraphrases:
Phillips:
"With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers, as an act of intelligent worship, to give him your bodies, as a living sacrifice, consecrated to him and acceptable by him. 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."
New Living Translation:
"And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice--the kind he will accept. When you think of what he has done for you, is this too much to ask? Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is."
The Message:
"So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life--your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life--and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you."
Doesn't the Phillips do a better job of capturing the power of Paul's writing while also avoiding the pitfalls of difficult wording? (Nor does it pander to cultural relativism.) Despite not being a word for word translation, it sticks remarkably to the ideas of the original text as shown below in the more literal King James Version translation:
"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."
Having translated the Book of Romans myself back in college, I can appreciate the singlehanded success Phillips enjoys in capturing the tenor of the Greek, while simultaneously not being condescending or too loose with ideas. In my many years of reading the Phillips Translation, I have yet to find a single verse that imparts a controversy that would create any doctrinal questions.
The nature of the Phillips translation makes it an excellent Bible to simply read. Phillips originally did not include verse markings, so the text was not broken up by numbers, making it more book-like. For this reason, this is one of the finest devotional Bibles written.
If there is to be any quibble, it lies in the fact that Phillips was British and not American, so his translation does have a few phrases that are better suited to British English than American. But these are few and far between, being far less noticeable than some of the liberties that American translators have taken in many of the modern Bible paraphrases. Some may also fault the fact that Phillips does not attempt to update direct quotes from the Old Testament when they are used in the New Testament. (Different revisions exists, some which use the New King James when quoting OT texts and others with the American Standard Version.) This may seem a bit odd to some when the style of phrasing changes, but since Phillips did not translate an Old Testament, it is a translator's prerogative that can be justified.
For those who would like to get a feel for the Phillips New Testament, it is available online. My personal take is that it is the best modern paraphrase available, is a great companion for Bible study (though not as the primary source - stick with a literal translation for that), and is particularly well-suited for continuous reading. J. B. Phillip's work continues to amaze me with its superb blend of simple modernity, accuracy, and power. Highly Recommended!
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