The Voice: New Testament Review
I have starte
d reviewing for Book sneeze and my first book was The Voice: New Testament Bible by Thomas Nelson Publishing. On the back cover you will read the following:
You will fall in love with the Bible in this bold, new translation and format.
- Beautiful achieves literary and artistic excellence
- Sensitive respects cultural shifts and the need for accuracy
- Balanced includes theologically diverse writers and scholar
When reading the cover I was excited about a new translation that would give some new insight to the New Testament, but I cannot continue this review with out being transparent and honest. I was disappointed and disprove of this New Testament being a translation. This Bible is not a translation, but a retelling, a paraphrase of the Bible and that is what it needs to be spelled out as. I will list some nice things about this Bible I enjoyed and then the not so good things.
The positive:
- I did enjoy the the story line and retelling of the verses in narrative form with speakers. For example when Jesus spoke, it would write Jesus and then what he said.
- It gave verbal cues for example Elizabeth (disagreeing)
- The Voice also used the narrative form to break up the text so that it is a much easier read, and enjoyable to read at the dining room table in the morning for devotions.
The negative:
- This is not a pure translation and my hope is that it does not try to carry the weight of a translation. As an Associate Minister at a church I would never use this Bible to teach or preach from.
- The Voice takes out Biblical words so the don’t cause division or harm to people who disagree with them some examples: Jesus is no longer called the CHRIST, he is the liberating king; Baptism is no longer used it is a ceremonial washing. These are just two glaring problems I see with this Bible. It comes across to me like we are trying not to step on toes with Christians who don’t want to practice baptism or want to not make Christ a hard fact to live by.
- I also think that The Voice goes a little too far to try and please cultural ideology instead of delivering truth in the teachings.
I would not recommend The Voice to anyone looking for a new Bible to use as their everyday Bible, and I would not recommend this Bible to any new believer or Christ-follower. If you are looking for a reading Bible like The Message or The NLT then this would be a good choice to read.
