Book Review: The Voice New Testament
A few months ago, I signed BookFool up for Thomas Nelson’s innovative BookSneeze program that connects bloggers with books in exchange for honest reviews. Our first book to review is The Voice New Testament, a translation by the Ecclesia Bible Society that strives to help “young people fall in love with the Scriptures.”
Our first review is from Ryan P., followed by a quick run-down from yours truly. Ryan says,
The Voice New Testament is a purported re-telling of the scriptures for a post-modern world. In the opening pages, the Ecclesia Bible Society provides the background behind undertaking this revision of the scriptures, twenty years in the making. To achieve its goal, The Voice asked scholars, pastors, writers, musicians, and artists to contribute their ideas in creating a modern narrative style to the scriptures, while remaining faithful to the original purpose of the message.
The Voice reads like a screenplay or a personal blog. The tone of the passages is almost conversational in nature. While I initially found this style too simplistic in regards to my traditional experience with scripture, it eventually became interesting and even challenging in its own way. By stripping away some of the complexity of older, more familiar translations, the message of the New Testament became more immediate and direct. The outlined boxes (written by the contributors and inserted among key verses) helped to expound on the ideas of the passage and provided me with a broader contextual understanding of the message.
I would recommend The Voice to anyone looking for a modernized version of the New Testament. The few missteps that I encountered were based primarily on my personal taste, and may not reflect another reader’s view of the book. Overall, the accuracy and attention to detail are evident throughout, and I truly believe the authors honored the original intent of the Scripture.
And now, my own (less organized) thoughts:
Some people have strong opinions on new translations. (cc) Flickr user ASurroca
I’ve been carrying The Voice around for a month now, reading a page here and there. I took it to Bible class a few times and was initially worried that I wouldn’t be able to find the right scripture when called on to read. You get used to the format quickly, though, and the translation is not so far out that you can’t follow along with people reading from the NIV.
For me, the real test of a plain-English translation is the book of Romans. I’ve always found Paul’s writing style to be confusing and hard to follow. In the KJV and NASB, he seems to jump from idea to idea without connecting them into one coherent thought. I’m willing to admit that the problem lies with me but I’m also searching for a translation that can make sense of Paul’s style for me.
(Side note: Jimmy Allen’s class on Romans was the only “B” I received in my last three years of undergrad. I don’t blame the book of Romans entirely but do consider it a willing accomplice to GPA assassination.)
Consider how The Voice handles this syntactically tricky passage from Romans 8:
Therefore, now no condemnation awaits those who are living in Jesus, the Liberating King, [avoiding sin and embracing the Spirit], because when you live in Him a new law takes effect. The law of the Spirit of life breathes into you and rescues you from the law of sin and death. (Italics indicates text not in the original manuscript but included to clarify the intent.)
The language and intent here is clear. If you’re looking for an easy reading Bible, maybe for your morning devotional, I recommend The Voice highly.
As a matter of practicality, the copy we received is not as durable as a traditional Bible. It’s basically a tough paperback, and the cover is already bent up after a month of semi-regular usage. In this regard, the paperback version of The Voice is best for reading at home, not for taking everywhere you go.
Public Speaking Horror Stories
(cc) Flickr user Brendan Biele
Scott Schwertly of Ethos3 just launched a new blog, Stuff Presenters Like, filled with good stuff, bad stuff, lame stuff, and horror stories about public speaking. If you’ve ever spoken in public, you’ve probably got one to share.
Yours truly contributed a public speaking horror story to the inaugural “issue.” A snip from the middle:
When it’s finally my turn, I take the podium, wait for my first slide to appear, and jump in. I’m watching my pace and clicking my slides on cue. I’m making eye contact. I’m even getting a few giggles out of the crowd. But they’re not laughing at the right parts. In fact, they don’t seem to be paying attention at all. They’re whispering to each other and shifting around in their seats.
I begin to panic.
Click through to read more. Do you have any public speaking horror stories to share?
Top 5 Favorite Books
Following up on our Top 5 Favorite Movies, the Fools here share with you their Top 5 Favorite Books of all time. I knew The Bible would make the list several times, so I asked them to think of five favorites besides The Bible.
In alphabetical order, we are…
Casey
- The Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis – One of C.S. Lewis’s lesser known works, but excellent nonetheless. Theology + Science-fiction = Total Awesomeness!
- Lord of the Rings Trilogy (Including the Hobbit) by J.R.R. Tolkien – Tolkien was a genius! The movies were favorites as well.
- David Copperfield by Dickens - I love to despise Uriah Heep.
- The Chronciles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis – The part with Aslan on the stone table gets me every time.
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families by Stephen Covey – This book has had a great impact on our family’s mission.
David
- Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov – Both touching and deeply disturbing, witty and brilliantly composed.
- The Body: An Essay by Jenny Boully – This clever, book-length essay is composed entirely of footnotes.
- White Noise by Don Delillo – A professor of Hitler Studies grapples with his fear of death.
- Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger – A thought-provoking novel composed almost entirely of dialogue.
- The Best of Roald Dahl by Roald Dahl – A collection of fascinating, shocking, and very disturbing short stories.
Honorable Mentions: The Road by Cormac McCarthy, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Kris
- Cinderella, all versions, though I grew up on Charles Perrault’s with the pumpkin and glass slipper. I haven’t read it in a while but read Perrault’s version enough in my first twelve years of life to make up for the last sixteen.
- Phantastes: A Faerie Romance by George MacDonald
- The Hobbit. First read in 5th grade and, oh, I still live and taste it.
- Lord of the Flies by William Golding
- 101 Famous Poems Edited by Roy Cook. This is my “bathroom book” and I have read each poem dozens of times; both in and out of the privy
Lou
- The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks. An awesome series of 21 fantasy novels. All of which I read in about 6 months, twice, before I read #2 below.
- The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien. No other comments needed here. Obviously, the Lord of the Rings closely followed…my precious!
- War of the Worlds, H. G. Wells. Terrific book, terrible 2005 Tom Cruise movie!
- The Time Machine, H. G. Wells. Are you starting to see a pattern here?
- Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff, Richard Carlson. Simple ways to keep the little things from taking over your life. The anti-OCD!
Honorable Mention: Rules of The Red Rubber Ball, Kevin Carroll. Kevin was the creative catalyst for Nike. What a job!! This guy could make Archie Bunker cheer.
Luke
In order of publication:
- Essays, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Hard to choose only one, but Self-Reliance is a good place to start.
- A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce. What style!
- The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald. A great story, well told.
- The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis. A surprising little book that might blow your mind.
- Hyperion, Dan Simmons. Technically Sci-fi but as terrible and awe-inspiring as anything in the Bible.
Honorable Mention: Barry Hannah’s story “Constant Pain in Tuscaloosa” (Airships) is the finest short study of voice and human complexity in the English language.
Nicole
- A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess — Questions of free will; beautifully written with unique forms of speech created by Burgess: Nadsat!
- Stiff by Mary Roach — Wonderful Non-fiction regarding cadavers and science! Mary Roach writes science wonderfully with humor.
- Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov — Comically narrated by Humbert Humbert and VERY controversial.
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley — He seriously wrote this in 1931!! Amazingly written and some SCARY science fiction.
- The Hanged Man by Francesca Lia Block – I am a huge fan on FLB and I adore her style of writing; you can feel her words.
You
Our favorite Fool of all. What are your favorite books?
Tour of United Record Pressing in Nashville
[Ed. note: This is a guest post from Richard, one of our creative warehouse Fools, about a field trip they took last Thursday.] Today — in what ended up being an extended lunch break that was graciously afforded us by our ever-generous boss-people — the motliest of the motley employees of Bookfool.com embarked on a brilliant tour. August 13th was the day, the factory of United Record Pressing (URP) was the destination.
URP is one of five record pressing plants left in America (that they know of, anyway), and the largest presser of vinyl. Ever. But what’s all the more worth noting is that they are, in total, the only one that matters. Period. Our friend Alan gave us the show-around, which was informal and fantastic. I’d be hard pressed (HA!) to see a group of people so geeked out/fascinated ever again. It was like embodying this lady at a cat museum or this guy at the fair. Or something.
Upon our arrival in the building, we saw that it quite literally appeared to be frozen in time: 60′s art decor, aquatic tiling, etc. We were initially greeted by a signed picture of Rick James, thus confirming our suspicion that 4th Ave. South is in fact the Stargate.
We were greeted by our comrade and treated to free coasters made from the centers of discarded records. Seriously. We got a stack for the entire Fool-office and subsequently increased our cool factor exponentially. [Ed. note: It's true. They are much cooler to us now.] Moon Dog: Bing-o Bang-o.
Lining the walls were some of the records they had printed. From A Tribe Called Quest to Animal Collective, Bob Dylan to the Beatles, Elvis to Eminem, the Stooges to Sly and the Family Stone, it seemed the magnitude and myriad of bands represented knew no bounds.
The first part we visited was affectionately known as the Motown Suite. URP started pressing back in ’49, exclusively doing 7″ until (I think) ’99. Back in the 60′s and 70′s, Motown records was one of their biggest customers. Seeing as Nashville tends to be about 5-10 years behind the curve with anything, segregation was still prominent here, thus the representatives and artists weren’t able to get a place to stay. So these guys at URP put them up in a pretty posh apartment-esque part of their upstairs. They have perfectly preserved it to this day and we were enamored of the space. The artists also used to listen to the records there for the first time, and so the vibe was simply incredible. Good people, practice, and tunes. Jam.
We went downstairs to the pressing plant and watched how records were made…obviously. Vinyl actually starts off as tiny chunks, is then melted into “patties” or “pucks”, which are put into the machines where the process begins. I won’t go in to the details, but there are videos you can watch, both on the URP website and one at BookFool’s Flickr that I took. [Ed. note: Awesome vid! Also embedded at the bottom of this post.]
We saw the room where they make the master mold of the record that is used to press the rest. One in our company declared that room to be the place where, “in the first Batman movie, the Joker was melted,” simultaneously confusing the seminal Batman/Keaton film with the pathetically lesser 3rd one, Batman Forever/Clooney, and also describing it to a perfect T. (In his defense, Joker did fall into a vat of craziness, right? I remember not liking that part as a child.)
The epic experience also included the pricing info, seeing where they keep all the “mother” presses, and seeing the grooves under a microscope, which was a funny incident in and of itself. We were blown away by seeing that up close, and the more questions we asked about records on the micro level, the less anyone knew. “Uhh, ask Andy.” “Uhh, you’ll have to ask Thomas,” etc. We had our suspicions about music and records being the witchcraft-voodoo of the devil (our moms told us about Elvis!) and once we got to the science of it all, our suspicions were confirmed. Sorry to the Parents.
All in all, it was a gorgeous outing. We were baffled and enlightened and mystified and geeked out. God bless music; there’s nothing better than music. And these people were uncompromising in their handling of its vinyl medium. Ben noted how nothing seemed nostalgic or “touristy” simply because this was all they had ever done. Sure, they’d watch their product rise, fall, and rise again, but they stuck with it. Minus the historicity of the bangin’ Motown Suite, they just did their thing the same as it ever was. (They don’t even make the machines that press records anymore! Incredible!)
If you live in Nashville, visit. It’s free. If you don’t, come and see it. It’s worth it. And the best “tourisity” thing I’ve done in a while.
Further viewing:
- Video tour of URP on YouTube.
- The Dead Weather’s “Will There be Enough Water?” shot at URP.
- More photos on Flickr from the Fools’ visit.
