I requested The Voice New Testament expecting a paraphrase similair to the Message. What I recieved was....different. It claims to "represents collaboration among scholars, pastors, writers, musicians, poets, and other artists, giving great attention to the beauty of the narrative." As far as I could tell, that means they structured all dialouge as script and added a lot of "clarification," in little italicized phrases.
I am not really sure who this translation is intended for. The clarifications might help a new reader, but I do not feel this translation is suitable for normal study patterns. And while some of the renderings are beautiful--especially John 1--the notes are too intrusive for those familiar with the Scriptures.
I think I'd give it three stars because I'm not sure how to use it. So far I've been reading from it for devotions some mornings, but it doesn't feel like a study Bible.
I have been given a free copy of this book from Thomas Nelson's BookSneeze program in exchange for an honest review.
I have to wonder about the 40,000 different translations of the Bible out there. It seems like there's a translation tailored to just about any sort of person you can think of. Honestly, I think people are way too cavalier with it. God's Word itself tells us that it is sufficient - 'for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God might be thoroughly furnished unto all good works'. (2 Tim. 3:16 & 17) It doesn't need some specially-tailored translation to be effective.
ReplyDeleteI grew up with the NIV, but my college uses the ESV...I stick with the NIV just because my hyper-analytical mind finds some of the ESV renderings silly. And then they went and "updated" the NIV :(
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