I am delighted Michael Gove, the Education Secretary is providing a copy of the Bible for every school in the UK. It is intended to mark the 400th anniversary of its publication in English. 24,000 copies of the Bible costing over £370,000. Mr Gove said ‘Every school pupil should have the opportunity to learn about this book and the impact it has had on our history, language, literature and democracy.’ Indeed, but why oh why, the King James version?

Children should indeed learn to appreciate the impact the Bible has had on our history and culture. But how many will come to know the Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour by reading the King James Bible?  How many will have their stereotypes reinforced that the Bible is an outdated book, as irrelevant as Shakespeare or the Magna Carta. How much more helpful it would have been to provide every school with a Bible in contemporary English. Until as late as the 1940’s, young people had little choice.  We would probably have never heard of J.B. Phillips, nor benefited from his magnificent translation of the New Testament were it not for a letter he wrote C.S. Lewis in the Summer of 1943. John Bertram Phillips was the vicar of the Church of the Good Shepherd in London. We wrote to C.S. Lewis to say how much he appreciated his writings and included a copy of his personal translation of Colossians.

With bombs falling and sirens wailing and buildings collapsing all about, London was not unlike First Century Rome, at least for Christians. Paul’s Epistles seemed right to the point. The trouble was, the young people of his parish could not understand the Authorised Version. What they needed was something a little easier to read. So Phillips’ attempt at translating Colossians. “What did Lewis think?” He asked. Lewis immediately put the translation to the test. He turned to Colossians 2:8 in the authorised version

“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” (Colossians 2:8 AV).

He then read the same verse from Phillips’ translation:

“Be careful that nobody spoils your faith through intellectualism or high-sounding nonsense. Such stuff is at best founded on men’s ideas of the nature of the world and disregards Christ!” (Colossians 2:8 J.B. Phillips)

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Andrew Murray was a pastor and teacher who lived in South Africa in the 19^thCentury. He wrote the classic “Abide in Christ”. He set an example few of us have equalled since. Among those on whom his influence was the greatest were his children and grandchildren. Five of his six sons became ministers and four of his daughters became minister’s wives. Ten grandsons became ministers and thirteen grandchildren became missionaries. And that was just his close family.

Woodrow Wilson the 28th President of the United States tells of another person who influenced him. “I was sitting in a barber chair when I became aware that a powerful personality had entered the room. A man had come quietly in upon the same errand as myself to have his hair cut and sat in the chair next to me. Every word the man uttered, though it was not in the least didactic, showed a personal interest in the man who was serving him. And before I got through with what was being done to me I was aware I had attended an evangelistic service, because Mr, D. L. Moody was in that chair. I purposely lingered in the room after he had left and noted the singular affect that his visit had brought upon the barber shop. They talked in undertones. They did not know his name, but they knew something had elevated their thoughts, and I felt that I left that place as I should have left a place of worship.”

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