JB Phillips (OE1917-1924)

By the end of the 1960s few modern authors in the field of religion had made as wide an impact on the English speaking world as Emanuel Old Boy John Bertram Phillips (OE1917-1924). His modern translations of the New Testament into understandable English, together with his numerous other books, helped make Christianity relevant to a younger generation of people who until then had pictured it as, perhaps, antiquated and irrelevant.

J B Phillips

As an evangelist he was way ahead of his time. As church numbers fell after World War 2 he combated this by using modern mediums such as cassette tapes and vinyls to carry the Bible message to young people. His messages were frequently played in youth clubs from the 1940s onwards as the church began to rebuild after the War.

JBP was born in Barnes in 1906, and after his education at Emanuel he attended Emanuel College, Cambridge. He was a Senior Prefect at the school, and enjoyed drama and debating.

In 1927 he took an Honours Degree in Classics and English, before teaching at Sherbourne Preparatory School in Dorset, before returning to Ridley Hall, Cambridge, for theological training. He was to return to Emanuel many times over the years, often speaking as a guest at Christian Union events.

JPB, in his autobiography, “The Price of Success” had fond memories of his time at Emanuel: “Just before my eleventh birthday, I began at Emanuel school.....I honestly believe that I enjoyed the next seven years of school greatly”.

He goes on to say: ““Emanuel School provided all the stimulus, activity and society that I needed.” However, he also shares the same memories as most of us…. “ I remember the enormous length of the school drive(it is very long).”

JBP had many other positive school memories…. ““Discipline was strict but never unreasonable. Corporal punishment could be administered by house prefects for the more serious offences.” And ““ I do not recollect any serious bullying at any time, although naturally, a good deal of good - humoured ragging went on. I don’t remember any snobbery either.”

And his final comments on school dinners and sport: ““The dinners were quite good, although quite slapdash in their cooking and serving” and ““Apart from compulsory cricket, the only other physical thing that I dreaded at school was swimming.......these weekly sessions were purgatory.”

After being ordained in 1930 he served his first parish in Penge, South East London. After a stint as a free-lance journalist he returned to parish work as curate as St. Margaret’s, also in South East London.

During World War 2 he became Vicar of The Church of the Good Shepherd, where he remained for most of the War. During this time his church was destroyed and a great deal of damage was done to the surrounding houses in his parish, fortunately, with very little loss of life.

It was during this time he began to write “Letters to Young Christians”, with the sole idea of helping the youth of his parish understand the Letters of the New Testament. He had been disappointed to find out that few young people understood the Bible, and after his initial success spent with children in London bomb shelters and, led by their feedback, he continued to translate the rest of the New Testament after the war into colloquial English.

He used the Bible to pass the time in the bomb shelters and frequently distracted children from the falling bombs with his preaching!

More than anything he wanted children to stop thinking of God as a legend, that was far removed from their lives. What became obvious was that he used his brief spell as a teacher and journalist to extraordinarily good use, as that provided him with the blue-print of the language he was to use in his translations. Simple, straight-forward and understandable language were the key, as he wanted his translations to be relevant to modern lives.

In 1945 JPB was on the move again, and in the space of a few short years had a congregation of over 14,000 in Redhill. Feeling that he had taken his congregation as far as he could JPB then left parish work in 1955 to live in Dorset and to concentrate more fully on his translations and further writing.

What followed was his most prolific period in the public eye; he wrote many books, preached to thousands of people as a guest speaker, appeared on the BBC many times and spoke to large numbers of Christians during tours in America. As the 1950s wore on he translated more and more of the New Testament into modern English, drawing acclaim from the likes of CS Lewis.

In recognition of his translation work he was ordained as a Canon of Chichester Cathedral, a position he held until 1960. Due to his writing commitments he was never able to return to parish work, and although I haven’t been able to find out how many books he sold world-wide, I do know he had sold 4 million by the end of the 1950s.

Once his New Testament was completed, it was compiled in one volume called “The New Testament in Modern English”. This is his seminal work, for which he is best known. It has been republished many times since. In 1972 Time Magazine wrote of JPB "...he can make St. Paul sound as contemporary as the preacher down the street. Seeking to "transmit freshness and life across the centuries".

His work translating the Bible made him one of Britain's most famous Bible communicators. He only translated a few books of the Old Testament and preferred to talk of the New Testament as "extraordinarily alive" unlike any experience he had had with the more ancient texts.

JPB married Vera in 1939, who was his secretary for much of their marriage, and an author herself later in her life. They had one daughter, Jennifer, born in 1946.

He died in Swanage in 1982, where he had lived for almost 30 years. She also wrote a book of their life together.

His entertaining autobiography is in the School Archive and contains many highlights, one was in which the 20th Century’s greatest American Evangelist Billy Graham personally thanks him for all his work in spreading the Bible to the younger generations.

Although I do not want to get bogged down in Christian Dogma JBP was a Universalist and as such did not believe in Satan or the Ascension of Christ. Universalists generally believe everyone will go to Heaven, and that God’s love rules over all evil. This, of course, causes controversy in other Christian circles; Evangelicals who only believe in Salvation through the Blood of Christ being the main example. This made him a controversial figure in some circles as they did not want to hear or read anything by a preacher who did not believe in Salvation. If you trawl the information you can find more information on this yourself.

But whatever your take on Christianity, JBP led an incredible full life and always recognised the part Emanuel played in shaping his future. Comments or stories on JB Phillips are most welcome.

TRJ

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