The Voice - not the reality TV show - the reality check Bible

"Before time itself was measured, The Voice was speaking. The Voice was and is God."

So reads John 1:1 from Thomas Nelson's The Voice Bible translation which is written as a screenplay to be accessible to people who have never read the Bible.

Bible translators have sought for hundreds of years to present the ancient Bible texts in the language of the day. King James 1 version from 1611 came alive in Shakespearean English so it is perhaps fitting that one of the world's newest translations reads like a play (of course some people believe Shakespeare himself was a translator for the KJV).

The familiarity of today's reader with graphic novels, comics and more to the point, movies and television, means they could be right at home with a dialogue-led text:

Disciple: "It's a ghost!"
Another Disciple: "A ghost? What will we do?"
Jesus: "Be still. It is I; you have nothing to fear."
(From Matthew 15's account of Jesus walking on the water).

The publisher Thomas Nelson says, "Through a collaboration of nearly 120 biblical scholars, pastors, writers, musicians, poets, and artists, The Voice recaptures the passion, grit, humour, and beauty that is often lost in the translation process. The result is a retelling of the story of the Bible in a form as fluid as modern literary works, yet remaining painstakingly true to the original manuscripts.

Alongside the screenplay style, words such as angel or apostle are replaced.  Angel is rendered as "messenger" and apostle as "emissary." Jesus Christ is "Jesus the Anointed One" or the "liberating king."

The Voice, which took seven years to complete, focuses on building context around the words and scenes of the Bible. Executive Editor and Publisher says, “Where many translations are trying to just translate a single word we're trying to put that word into the context of when it was written and how that word has been used in many situations.”

Published in April 2012 The Voice is now available in Australia in a variety of formats from $34.95 for the 1664 page hardback right through to the $115 bonded leather special edition.

Or purchase The Voice Bible: Step Into the Story of Scripture from Amazon.

Comments

  1. Eternity for Bali8 September 2012 at 10:16

    I've never been a fan of the plethora of translations that are available these days, however this sounds fantastic... exciting, different and relevant.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous11 September 2014 at 19:45

    A great efforts by some intellectual people had resulted this renovation in the bible translation had made it very easily accessible to the people. I'm very keen on gathering all the information around the world about the translations and writing sectors, as I'm an assignment writer too. I'm glad that I could read this article about the holy book translation. Thanks for the share.

    ReplyDelete

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