The Voice of Matthew

by Lauren F. Winner

The Voice of Matthew is a unique retelling of the life of Jesus from the perspective of a Jewish believer who wants to connect the past with the future. The writer of this retelling is Lauren Winner, a young Jewish woman who has become a follower of Jesus. She is an extremely talented writer and a lecturer at Duke Divinity School that brings an intellectual edge to the biblical story. At the heart of this retelling is an accurate rendering of the traditional Bible text with historical and cultural expansions of the story that are placed in italic type to help the reader differentiate the expansions from the Bible text. Throughout the book the writer adds significant statements as ancillary asides. These ancillary statements are separated from the biblical text as ruled text. They include further development of the narrative setting, connective statements to explain the story, or development of character or background information.

Because Lauren has written all of the material, the elaborations in the text and the ancillary statements are in the same style and tone as the biblical text and make for a thoroughly stimulating read. While Lauren's writing style is very conversational, her scholarship is of the highest quality. An extremely accurate rendering of the biblical text is the foundation for this provocative and enlightening retelling of Matthew's Gospel. The reader will feel as if he is having a personal discussion with Matthew.

A unique formatting of the narrative text of the Scriptures is being used in all of the Gospel products in The Voice. It is readily apparent who the speaker is in dialogue without the interruptions to the story found in most versions of the Bible, the narrative element of the text is clear, and the ancillary material is easily distinguished from the Bible. The story reads like a novel with fascinating bonus gems provided to make this one of the most satisfying Bible reading experiences ever.

The biblical scholarship and writing style have been checked by two biblical reviewers, the senior theological scholar on The Voice Scripture Project, the senior writer, a biblical archaeologist, copyeditors and proofreaders, and the executive editor of the project. Lauren's work in Matthew has already been used to compile The Last Eyewitness, Songs from the Voice volume two, and the upcoming Son of the Most High.

The Voice is a Scripture project to rediscover the story of the Bible. It is holistic, beautiful, sensitive, and balanced. As a part of the project a contextualized version of the Bible is being created through a truly unique retelling process with an emphasis on the cultural transference to the postmodern culture and with great attention being given to literary artistry.

Genres: Faith, Christianity, Nonfiction, Christian Living, Christian, Religion

208 pages, Paperback

First published February 6, 2007

About the author

Lauren F. Winner is the author of numerous books, including Girl Meets God and Mudhouse Sabbath. Her study A Cheerful & Comfortable Faith: Anglican Religious Practice in the Elite Households of Eighteenth-Century Virginia was published in the fall of 2010 by Yale University Press. She has appeared on PBS’s Religion & Ethics Newsweekly and has written for The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post Book World, Publishers Weekly, Books and Culture, and Christianity Today. Winner has degrees from Duke, Columbia, and Cambridge universities, and holds a Ph.D. in history. The former book editor for Beliefnet, Lauren teaches at Duke Divinity School, and lives in Durham, North Carolina. Lauren travels extensively to lecture and teach. During the academic year of 2007-2008, she was a visiting fellow at the Center for the Study of Religion at Princeton University, and during the academic year of 2010-2011, she was a visiting fellow at the Institute of Sacred Music at Yale University. When she’s home, you can usually find her curled up, on her couch or screen porch, with a good novel.

Reviews

[Amy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Meh. I thought this was a devotional OF the book of Matthew, but it was sort of a condensed translation of the book with annotation throughout. And it wasn't a great translation. After reading some of Winner's other books, like Girl Meets God, or Mudhouse Sabbath, I really expected more.

[Evelyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read during Lent 2023

[Francine Apollo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful little book. The author reminds the reader that this Gospel was written by a Jews for the Jews...just in case we need a reminder.

This book is extremely readable and enjoyable. It is set up almost like a play script with dialogue for each of the characters (Jesus, John the Baptist, the Devil, etc.). I found this really fascinating. In addition, the author includes boxes of information inserted to help the reader get the scene as it is being related.

The author is a scholar, a convert to Christianity (she was raised as a Jew), and an Episcopal priest. She is a talented writer and a person who writes from faith and experience. What a treasure!

[Telly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a retelling, through modern voice, of the Gospel According to Matthew. What I especially enjoyed is that the author is a young, female, Jewish follower of Christ, and so it lent a new perspective in that she is able to expound on the historical and cultural elements that are significant to the gospel. It should be noted that these segments are always included in italics to differentiate from what is included in the actual gospel. She also uses other visual cues for the elements that she includes, such as elaborations and ancillary explanations.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm enjoying the way that Lauren Winner paraphrases the book of Matthew. Her Jewish background gives her insight into the text (told in small blurbs throughout the book). I think I like The Message translation better, but this one is great!

[Dennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very engaging easy to understand story of Jesus. I recommend it to anyone and everyone. Christian teachers should give it to teens and young adults to read.

[Andrea]

am curious to read this, as i like her style!

[Paula Hedgepeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this simple retelling of Matthew's gospel by one of my favorite authors.

[Jt]

didn't care for this type of reading the Bible

[Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very nice, readable retelling of Matthew.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

this took a few chapters to warm up to, ended up loving it.