"The Voice - a scripture project to re-discover the story of the Bible."

I received my copy from Amazon last week and I am enjoying it immensely. I would recommend this translation (and it IS a translation - not a paraphrase like the Message) for the person who wants to read the New Testament in bigger chunks than usual. This isn't a translation for verse-cherrypicking. It's deliberately rendered in such a way as to make cherrypicking obsolete (something I'm very happy about). It is rendered in way that the richness of the poetic text and the storytelling becomes the main focus. The language isn't English tech-speak like so many translations that approach the text as a spiritual technical manual. The result is that you naturally read MORE of the text and become more familiar with the big picture of the narrative rather than the little disputable details. This translation majors on what's actually major: grasping the "meta-narrative" of the New Testament. Overly technical translations make certain passages unnecessarily cryptic and breed unhealthy obsessions over what a certain cluster of words mean within OUR cultural understanding, completely bypassing the original cultural matrix that the words were originally penned within. The unintended result is a misreading and misapplication of the text, which God will still use in our lives, gracious as He is, but so much of the original treasure is lost in translation. We are impoverished in the process (and reading the New Testament becomes a chore and a bore).

This is why I have embraced The Message as much as I have. Yes, it's a paraphrase, but it is a paraphrase that excavates the original Story wonderfully - preserving the poetry and the richness of the original language. Yes, it may gloss over some of our favorite pet-doctrines and not give the same attention to our favorite passages that we would, but that is what paraphrases do, and The Message doesn't pretend to be anything more than a paraphrase. And if you think there is anything wrong with paraphrases, stop listening to sermons and teachings, because they also explain the text and paraphrase it for contemporary ears. And really, translation in itself DOES involve a certain amount of paraphrasing. You have to consciously decide whether you are going to use antiquated english or modern english, or even post-modern english in which certain phrases would have that extra "zip" to us while certain older english equivalents would be like a nice comforting glass of warm milk for the soul. Both are valuable, but a translation has to deliberately choose one over another.

In a sense, we have an OVER-abundance of english translations while there are probably some less-euro-centric languages that have zero. And yes, that is not a good thing. But the majority of english translations all seem to fall into the old forced dichotomy - word for word equivalency vs. idea to idea equivalency. Storytelling and poetic sensibility are never a concern. Which is a shame because good storytelling is what keeps you reading, and the gospel-authors were amazing storytellers. Paul was a gripping communicator, even if his translators were not. Sometimes you need to align people with simular gifts to the original authors rather than just technical-minded analysts. The Voice does this. See for yourself. Go here and sample some of the freebies. I can't recommend this translation enough. Here it is on sale at Amazon. Here is a free pdf of the gospel of John.