Article March 20, 1989 Issue

What happened to me as [my translation of the...

J. B. Phillips

The Ring of Truth

What happened to me as [my translation of the Gospels] progressed was that the figure of Jesus emerged more and more clearly, and in a way unexpectedly. Of course I had a deep respect, indeed a great reverence, for the conventional Jesus Christ whom the Church worshipped. But I was not at all prepared for the unconventional man revealed in those terse Gospels. No one could possibly have invented such a person: this was no puppet-hero built out of the imagination of adoring admirers. "This man Jesus," so briefly described, rang true, sometimes alarmingly true. I began to see now why the religious establishment of those days wanted to get rid of him at all costs. He was sudden death to pride, pomposity, and pretence.

J. B. Phillips

Reprinted from The Ring of Truth: A Translator's Testimony © 1967 by J. B. Phillips. Used by permission of Harold Shaw Publishers, Box 567, Wheaton, IL, U.S.A. 60189. Published in England by Hodder & Stoughton, Ltd.

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