The Voice

Bob Smietana, a fine writer for The Tennessean, sketches a story about The Voice:

The name Jesus Christ doesn’t appear in The Voice, a new translation of the Bible from a Nashville publisher.

Nor do religious words like “angel” or “apostle.”

Instead, “angel” is rendered as “messenger,” and “apostle” as “emissary.” Jesus Christ is Jesus the Anointed One or “the liberating king.”

That’s a more accurate translation for modern American readers, said David Capes, lead scholar for The Voice, published by Thomas Nelson. Capes said that many people, even those who’ve gone to church for years, don’t realize that the word “Christ” is a title.

“They think that Jesus is his first name and Christ is his last name,” said Capes, who teaches New Testament at Houston Baptist College in Texas.

Seven years in the making, The Voice is the latest entry into the crowded field of English Bible translations. It’s aimed at people who haven’t read the Bible much before and aren’t familiar with church jargon.

Unlike the updated New International Version and the Common English Bible — both released last year — much of The Voice is formatted like a screenplay or novel. Translators cut out the “he said” and “they said” and focused on the dialogue.