The Story of the Voice

by David B. Capes

Step into the story behind "the story." Discover the reasons behind and the vision for The Voice translation! In-depth interviews with key participants explain the translators' motivations and visions for the project. Learn how the translators worked to bring a balance between scholarship, literary style, and forward thinking to meet the scripture needs for the church.Features Discussion of how The Voice makes the Bible accessible to new believers Explanation of The Voice's unique style and features Examples illustrate how scholars worked through the Hebrew and Greek texts of the Bible Firsthand accounts of The Voice translation project

160 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 12, 2013

About the author

David B. Capes (born December 16, 1955) (PhD, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary) is associate dean of biblical and theological studies and professor of New Testament at Wheaton College. He has authored, coauthored, or coedited books such as Rediscovering Paul, Rediscovering Jesus, Old Testament Yahweh Texts in Paul's Christology, The Footsteps of Jesus in the Holy Land, The Last Eyewitness, Rebecca's Children, The Voice of Hebrews, and The Voice of Romans.

In addition to contributing to a number of dictionaries, encyclopedias, and professional journals, he served as the lead scholar on a new Bible translation, The Voice Bible. Since the early 1990s, Capes has been active in interfaith dialogue in Houston and cohosts a radio show called A Show of Faith on TALK RADIO 950 KPRC Houston. He was previously academic dean and professor of New Testament at Houston Graduate School of Theology, and he has served as pastor of several churches and has participated in a variety of professional organizations, including the Society of Biblical Literature, the Institute for Biblical Research, and the National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion.

Reviews

[Nathan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting book; not great. It gives a glimpse behind the scenes of a modern (postmodern) Evangelical (broadly speaking) Bible translation. I've appreciated what I've read of the translation, which isn't much (most of 1 Samuel). Some of the influences and motivations behind it are a little worrisome; some are very commendable.

After reading this: is the Voice a translation or a paraphrase? I think it's a translation "with features", though I would encourage the reader to take note of the endorsement by one of the more noteworthy and credible collaborators, Darrell Bock, in which he labels it "an explanatory paraphrase." You've probably never seen so much italicized text (indicating added, not emphasized) in a Bible translation before.

Bock, for what it's worth served as a reviewer for Acts. That is good. However, Brian McLaren was the main translator. That tends to make the more conservative among us quite rightly squirm and twist up our face. I am glad that there are pastors and ministries and even translations targeted to make Gospel truth accessible to postmodernists. However, that often opens the door to some odd interpretations of Biblical truth (even contortion or denial of Biblical truth) in order to be more *acceptable* to postmodernity. I cannot judge yet to what extent this new-ish translation falls into that trap. However the author's criticism in this book for what is described as the "propositional" nature of other translations is a hint that such influences may not be as inert as we would like. The translation's use of "restorative justice" also shouldn't be divorced from our contemporary lexicon--perhaps a hint at an interpretive grid imported from modern "social justice" theory.

So after reading this book *about* the Voice translation, I recommend reading the Voice translation with a few provisions. Read (and recommend) it with care. Add it to a robust arsenal of other good translations. Watch for interpretive bias. Enjoy its features (See Psalm 25 and Lamentations 3 where it preserves parts of the "form" than your standard "formal equivalent" translation can't--something that can only be done here by being less "word-for-word"--usually a synonym for "formal"). But if push comes to shove, I would give greater weight to other translations.

Also, read this book if you're interested in and already reading more broadly in the area of translation philosophy and the struggles and decisions that face translators. This should not be your introduction to the topic. However, for those already in that space, this book presents another good case study.

[Haley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book tells the story of how The Voice translation came to be. The beginning tells the reader a bit about some of the key people who worked on the translation. Then, there are chapters about different aspects of working on the translation, including why they chose certain words over others and how the translation was marketed.

I thought this book was very interesting. I knew nothing about The Voice translation before reading this book. I'll probably never read the translation, since I'm Catholic and it's a Protestant Bible. (Actually I found it very interesting that at the end the author, who had repeated over and over that there are 66 books in the Bible, talked about how there will never be any books taken away or added from the Bible, when in fact there are 73 books in the Catholic Bible and seven were taken out of the Protestant one.) Still, it was interesting to read about the translation, and I'm definitely intrigued by it.

Some parts of the book were harder for me to get through than others. The beginning chapters were basically just biographies of people who worked on the project, and I more-or-less skimmed through those. The chapters about word choice and why they translated certain things the way they did was extremely interesting to me though. I really enjoyed those chapters.

If you find The Voice translation of the Bible at all intriguing, then I'd recommend checking this book out.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com® book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Age Appropriate For: All Ages

Best for Ages: 12 and up for reading level

The Voice Bible has become my favorite version to read. I feel like I am reading the stories for the first time, because they have translated it into a vocabulary that is still rich and expansive, but also commonly used. So when I had an opportunity to read this book about the making of the voice, I was happy.

Unfortunately, not all books live up to our expectations. This book, at least for me had poor formatting, short bio’s on people I wasn’t sure even matter to the project, and lacked a good storyteller that I was expecting. I had to force myself to keep reading at times because it was just plain boring.

With that said, there was some good information in here. They explained why they translated certain words and phrases the way they did. It made me feel even better about the translation then I did before.
If you are interested in The Voice bible and how it was made, this is a good book. Just don’t expect a very exciting book. This is more informational then a story.

I received this book from Thomas Nelson through Book Sneeze in exchange for my honest review. I was under no obligation to write a positive review. The opinions in this review are entirely my own.