In this morning’s USA Today it was announced that a new audio Bible is being produced by Inspired By Media Group. Big name African American actors, clergy and more are being called on for the voices. Samuel L. Jackson will be doing the voice of God. Denzel Washington will read the Song of Solomon. T.D. Jakes will voice Abraham and the Holy Spirit. Blair Underwood will be the voice of Jesus. The CD Set is called “The Bible Experience.” I’m unsure if all the voices are to be African Americans.
While a small band of evangelicals continues to try to sink the TNIV, Zondervan is seeking innovative ways to bring the Bible to today’s English speakers.
It’s gonna be great.
Here’s a PDF with the cast.
Ya know, there may be better translations (there are quite a few mistakes in the TNIV according to my old prof, Carroll Osburn) but I’d rather a few mistakes but English everyone can understand than the KJV. Afterall, the LXX was NOT a great translation, but God used some of the mistakes as sites for the fulfillment of prophesy.
ty,
I’d love to hear you develop some of your ideas into a blog post!
Truth is there are far more readable versions of the Bible being produced as audio recordings. http://podbible.com/ is one of them with New Zealanders reading through the entire CEV.
But Zondervan/Inspired By Media are on to something because of the “buzz” big names will attract. Nevertheless, I’m ambivalent about unbelievers being called on to read/act Scriptures.
A lot of people seem to think that the TNIV is full of errors. This is because of a campaign sponsored by CBMW which I am sorry to say is based on some very poor understanding of how languages work. In fact the most that can be said for the great majority of the alleged inaccuracies is that scholars have varying understandings of certain verses, and the TNIV translators have chosen an understanding which some people don’t like.
For more on this, see detailed discussions on the Better Bibles Blog.
Samuel L. Jackson as God. Now that’s interesting. And we’ve all heard him quote Scripture before:
“There’s a passage I got memorized. Ezekiel 25:17. ‘The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness. For he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you.’ I been sayin’ that [BEEP] for years. And if you ever heard it, it meant your [BEEP]. I never really questioned what it meant. I thought it was just a cold-blooded thing to say to a [BEEP] before you popped a cap in his [BEEP]. But I saw some [BEEP] this mornin’ made me think twice. Now I’m thinkin’: it could mean you’re the evil man. And I’m the righteous man. And Mr. 9mm here, he’s the shepherd protecting my righteous [BEEP] in the valley of darkness. Or it could be you’re the righteous man and I’m the shepherd and it’s the world that’s evil and selfish. I’d like that. But that [BEEP] ain’t the truth. The truth is you’re the weak. And I’m the tyranny of evil men. But I’m tryin’, Ringo. I’m tryin’ real hard to be a shepherd. ”
Hopefully, I didn’t miss anything in the edits above.
I think I’ll go get a Royale with cheese. That’s one tasty burger.
Where’s that from, Rick?
Pulp Fiction.
lingamish, I suppose that I could try to post something on my more serious blog Blogum Nemo Legit, in all likelyhood it will be a few days. Do you have anything specific that you want to hear more about?
Peter, Dr. Osburn is an expert on translation (worked mostly with Pioneer, wrote the translator’s commentary for Philippians), TC (is co-editor with B. Aland on International Project on the Text of Acts) and Classics (he turned down a professorship in Classics, at Old Miss, I believe), he was asked to look it over by an editor, and, I don’t remember too clearly, as his comment was only in passing, but I believe that his objections were mostly to a few passages that attributed concepts to Greek words that we do not have evidence for until two centuries later, but not all passages were corrected. He always does his homework: that is one of the reasons that the man is so intimidating in the academic setting.
r., I think that the funniest part about that is that Tarantino wrote his own version of the passage that doesn’t really occur in the Bible (though the last two sentences were adapted from that actual passage); it’s like he just didn’t have the time to find an actual passage that fit his context.
Ty, you’re right. The passage sounds authentic until you actually look it up. But it seems like a more effective executioner line than the Joker’s wimpy “Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?”
[...] As I mentioned in July, there is a dramatized version of the TNIV being produced using some big name actors and personalities, many of them African-Americans. They include Samuel Jackson and T.D. Jakes. I’m ambivalent to say the least about having the sacred word read by open enemies of the faith. But I have to begrudgingly concede that quite a few people might listen to the word that wouldn’t otherwise. [...]