All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives.
2 Timothy 3:14 NLT
The Word Transforms
Dr. E. V. Rieu was a classical scholar and translator for many years. He rendered Homer into very modern English for the Penguin Classics.
Rieu was sixty years old and a life-long agnostic when the same firm invited him to translate the Gospels.
His son remarked: "It will be interesting to see what Father makes of the four Gospels. It will be even more interesting to see what the four Gospels make of Father."
The answer was soon forthcoming. A year later, Rieu, convinced and converted, joined the Church of England.
In an interview with J. B. Phillips, Rieu confessed that he had undertaken the task of translation because of an "intense desire to satisfy himself as to the authenticity and spiritual content of the Gospels."
He was determined to approach the documents as if they were newly discovered Greek manuscripts,.
"Did you not get the feeling," asked Canon Phillips, "that the whole material was extraordinarily alive?"
The classical scholar agreed. "I got the deepest feeling," he replied. "My work changed me. I came to the conclusion that these words bear the seal of the Son of Man and God."
From J. B. Phillips, The Ring of Truth. quoted by R. Kent Hughes in 1001Great Stories and Quotes , Tyndale House Publishers (1998) pp 28-29
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