Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Many Pluses and a Few Minuses, November 10, 2008
I received a review copy from publisher Thomas Nelson and have been working through it. My thoughts:
What is The Voice?
It's a new Bible retelling and commentary created by the Ecclesia Bible Society (launched out of Ecclesia Church in Houston) and Thomas Nelson Publishers. It strives to maintain the original character of the authors, whereas many Bible translations strive to give a more consistent style across all books. The preface says The Voice is holistic (considers heart, soul, and mind), beautiful (achieves literary and artistic excellence), sensitive (respects cultural shifts and the need for accuracy), and balanced (includes theologically diverse writers and scholars).
What I Like
* Its narrative style and artistic sensibility makes it very readable, but not watered down. It's modern and accessible, and usually without falling into the more gimmicky wording that sometimes befalls The Message.
* Dialogue is formatted in screenplay style. In a traditionally-formatted translation, Luke 1:60-61 reads
But his mother answered and said, "No indeed; but he shall be called John." And they said to her, "There is no one among your relatives who is called by that name" (NASB).
But in The Voice it reads
Elizabeth (disagreeing): No. We will name him John.
Her Relatives (protesting): That name is found nowhere in your family.
* The Voice uses informational boxes in-line with the text rather than as footnotes. It's a much better reading experience and allows the reader's eyes to keep tracking along the page instead of constantly bouncing up and down the page to look at the footnotes. An example of one of these info boxes, from John 8:4: "Imagine the tension in that moment. You can sense the sarcasm in the air as these men threatening Jesus are now calling Him `Teacher.' Jesus knew this was a test."
What I Dislike
* It's not a translation but a retelling. Additional text is added to clarify the meaning and is indicated with italics. For example, John 8:8-9 reads like this in the NASB:
Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the center of the court.
And in The Voice:
Once again Jesus bent down to the ground and resumed writing with His finger. The Pharisees who heard Him stood still for a few moments and then began to leave slowly, one by one, beginning with the older men. Even the pious Pharisees knew they had sinned, so there would be no stones thrown this day. Eventually only Jesus and the woman remained, and Jesus looked up.
The Voice doesn't claim to be a literal translation, so it's not misleading to include this additional text since it's clearly marked (the Amplified Version does this too). However, it's a little like releasing an amplified version of A Tale of Two Cities that begins, "It was the best of times because the rulers and ruling classes lived in opulence, but it was the worst of times because the masses were being oppressed and hurtling toward revolution." It does give more explanation, but there's a lot lost in the process as well.
* The informational boxes are inconsistent in their pronoun usage and narration. The boxes in John are in first person ("My life changed that day; there was a new clarity about how I was supposed to live.") but in third person in Luke ("More than any other Gospel writer, Luke wants to situate the story...") and elsewhere.
* The terminology is sometimes forced, such as the repeated use of Liberating King (instead of Messiah or Christ), John the Immerser (instead of John the Baptist or John the Baptizer), and "ritually cleansed" instead of baptized or immersed. I appreciate the intent to make the language more accessible to those who are unfamiliar with some of the more explicitly religious terminology, but too often it comes across as forced and clunky rather than smooth and understandable.
The Voice is a mixed bag with much in its favor but some important weaknesses as well.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Review from One of the Writers/Reviewers, December 2, 2008
I'm commenting as one of the writers and reviewers on THE VOICE NEW TESTAMENT. I've been with the project from the beginning and have translated, commented, reviewed everything, sometimes many times.
The first question is this: is it a translation or a retelling? Well, it is both. Whenever you move from one language to another you are translating. In every chapter of every verse we are working from the original languages (Greek in the New Testament and Hebrew in the Old Testament). There are differences, of course, between formal, informal and dynamic translations. Ours is a dynamic translation. But it is a retelling because we have translated it with a view to telling again this amazing story of redemption and grace.
One thing we have tried to do in this translation is to avoid a common practice known as transliterating. Many words in other translations are merely transliterations of Greek words. For example, "Christ" is from the Greek "Christos." Rather than translate the meaning, most translations just render it "Christ." But most people--even people in the church--don't understand the meaning of "Christ." We treat it as Jesus' last name, but it is not. It is a title. So we have chosen to translate the title as "the Liberating King" or "Liberating King." The phrase "Jesus Christ" is actually a confession: "Jesus is the Liberating King" or for the purists out there "Jesus is the Messiah." Now if you are an insider, you may know what this language means, but most people in the world don't. This translation is for them. If you think it redundant, don't blame the translators, blame the writer (like Paul) who uses the title over 200 times in his letters.
We've done the same with words like "baptism" (from the Greek "baptisma"), "angel" (from the Greek "angelos") and "apostle" (from the Greek "apostolos").
There are many innovations in this translation. We hope you will read it and benefit from it. We hope too that some people will pick up the Bible for the first time and hear the Voice calling them, inviting them into a new kind of citizenship, citizenship in the kingdom of heaven.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Best New Testament Translation Ever, October 22, 2008
The Voice New Testament is something unique. It is :
1. Written by scholars and writers together so that it is beautifully written and entirely faithful to the original text.
2. Written with commentary that is part of the body of the text, but separated from the verses. This commentary makes the New Testament incredibly understandable for people with little or much Biblical knowledge.
3. Written in a screenplay format when people are speaking so that it is obvious who is speaking. Makes it easy for a group to read it as a play.
4. Easy to read; easy to understand. Particularly suited to young adults or teens, but not unsuitable for others. I myself am 58 years old and have studied the Bible for 25+ years.
I own multiple Bibles with lots of different translations of the New Testament, and this is the best one I've ever run across.
I can't wait for them to come out with the Old Testament.
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