Sunday, June 17, 2007

The Bible Experience




I hadn't noticed this low a price before, but Amazon.com is selling this great audio Bible for $20.99 for the MP3-CD version of the New Testament.



The version used is Today's New International Version. The complete cast list reads as a who's who African-Americans in the entertainment industry but also from other fields with

  • Angela Bassett
  • Samuel L. Jackson
  • Cuba Gooding, Jr
  • Forest Whitaker
  • and many others
If you've never heard this fully-scored audio Bible you can sample it here.

Beth and I have been really enjoying our copies of this. The one thing we don't like is that in some of the epistles one person will be reading, then two people will be reading at the same time, then they will phase to the second person only. I can think of no dramatic or other reason they would do this other than to give more people an opportunity to participate in the project. But I really find it distracting.

That quibble aside, this is a fine and engaging audio Bible which is very professionally done.

Amazon.com lists a release date of 30 October 2007 for the Old Testament.

1 comment:

John E. said...

Hey Stephen -- I can't remember how I stumbled onto your blog but I've been lurking via RSS for a few weeks. Thanks for the pointer to the MP3 CDs; I bought the 19-CD set for my wife in Feb. and I agree, they're great. (Make sure you plug in the subwoofer for Revelation.)

The quibble you mention seems to be a "splice" to let the project move from one voice to another (for convenience, variety, blooper repair, who knows what else) without seeming to introduce a new dramatic character. The "splices" happen a lot near the top of Paul's epistles; presumably to put a consistent voice at the top of each (*) without making whoever-it-was read 40% of the New Testament -- or restricting those 40% to (*yawn*) a single voice & accent.

(* Someone was carefully minding the storyline: e.g., LeVar Burton narrates both John's Gospel and the book of Revelation. Classy.)