The tagline on the cover of this new Bible is “Step Into the Story of Scripture.” I love storytelling, and I am always curious about new Bible translations, so I was excited to get my hands on the Voice New Testament. (They are working on the Old Testament now. In fact, you can download either Genesis or Isaiah for free here.)
The Voice is a dynamic translation that brings the biblical narrative to life, representing a collaboration among scholars, writers, musicians, and other artists. Currently available in the New Testament and Scripture portions, the creative page design is ideal for public reading and group studies with embedded commentary to help the reader understand the culture and context of the biblical story.
The result is a very easy to read translation that I highly recommend. Here are my two favorite features:
- It’s written in narrative format. Basically, you feel like you’re reading a play. Rather than having “Jesus said…” or “…the crowd replied” dividing up sentences, it just says Jesus: followed by what he said. Then a line break and The Crowd: followed by what they said. Lovely. Keeps you in the story.
- The commentary is embedded right into the story. For some people, this will certainly bug them. For me, it’s really nice. The commentary shows up in two different ways. If it is something that the original readers would have understood, it’s written right in the sentences themselves, but put in italics. On the other hand, if it is helpful background/context/etc. added by the authors, it is separated and even made a different color.
I encourage you to give it a shot. The have a terrific website with lots of information about the translation, some videos, and even a side-by-side comparison of the Voice and other popular translations.
Take a look at the Voice New Testament and let me know what you think, what you like, and even what you don’t.
