Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Ear Bible

Here's the blurb:

Our lives are busy. Cooking, cleaning, commuting, and many other tasks consume much of our time. The Ear Bible was invented to convert these daily routines into time for becoming better acquainted with the Bible. Just 25 minutes of listening per day will take a person through the entire Bible twice in one year!
(Who is the target audience here?)

By fitting comfortably on one ear, the Ear Bible allows the user to listen to the Bible while still interacting with the surrounding environment. When need arises to stop listening to the Bible and give attention elsewhere, the pause button is easily pressed - with no need to remove earbuds or headphones.

The NASB translation is read by a New Zealander. Why the NASB?

At NO point did the translators attempt to interpret Scripture through translation. Instead, the NASB translation team adhered to the principles of literal translation. This is the most exacting and demanding method of translation, requiring a word-for-word translation that is both accurate and readable. This method follows the word and sentence patterns of the original authors in order to enable the reader to study Scripture in its most literal format and to experience the individual personalities of those who penned the original manuscripts. For example, one can directly compare and contrast the simple eloquent style of John with the deep complexity of Paul.

Instead of telling the reader what to think, the updated NASB provides the most precise translation with which to conduct a personal journey through the Word of God.

The NASB (1971) is a revision of the American Standard Version of 1901. While it does adhere to the original languages, it is not particularly readable nor does it have a literary style. If I were to listen to the Ear Bible, I would be pressing the pause button frequently.

4 comments:

Tim Bulkeley said...

Hi,Deirdre, for an "ear" Bible that's rather more listenable (though also mainly read by New Zealanders) try PodBible we read the CEV, which is designed for listening, and 'cast either a chapter-a-day or whole Bible-in-a-year formats, or you can just download the chapters you want :)

Nathan Empsall said...

Literal translations help you experience the authors' personalities? Seems to me if you can't understand what a man is saying due to historical and cultural disconnects, then you have no clue what their personality is like...

Tim Bulkeley said...

Nathan, literal translations have their place. Of course, one needs a good dynamic equivalence translation alongside it, one gives you the sense of what was being said, the other gives you a sense of how it was being said. In fact the more someone studies the Bible the more useful a literal translation becomes for reading.

But for reading aloud, as you say a literal translation does not work, because Biblish makes awkward English, it requires too much processing for most people.

Unknown said...

There are also other audio Bibles that let you transfer the MP3s to your iPod but use KJV, like the Bible Cross. It usess the Alexander Scourby recording, which is quite good.

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