As with all forms of media, the eye catching title or blurb garners the most attention. During my last few months in the UK I did some editing work for the Voice translation that just recently published the OT and NT together for the first time. Due to some catchy titles like the one of this post, the translation has garnered some attention that might be unnecessarily negative.
One of the goals of the translation is to take terminology in the biblical text that didn’t have a specifically religious connotation at the time and use modern terminology that isn’t specifically religious. For instance, ἀπόστολος is translated in the Voice not as “apostle” which is really only a transliteration and only has religious connotations today, but with “emissary” which does not. Also for χριστός, rather than merely transliterating it like apostle, the translation goes with Anointed One.
When discussing this on USA Todayand other outlets the media has picked this up as taking Christ out of the Bible, when a better way to phrase it might have been taking “Christ” out of the Bible. I’ll not take time to reduplicate the efforts by Daniel Kirk, Larry Hurtado, and Greg Garrett.
If you are interested in a copy to see what the translation first-hand, let me know and we can get one to you.

Thursday, 26 April 2012 at 12:20 am
I looked into the Voice translation and downloaded the free sample of Isaiah from the website. I really appreciate that it’s not a paraphrase like The Message. While my biblical scholarship is certainly limited, so far it truly seems like a more accessible read of such a difficult prophet. I also noticed on the Table of Contents that the Voice has a calendar of important church dates and recommended readings for Lent, Advent, and the New Year. I think that’s wonderful. I’d definitely be interested in having a copy.
Wednesday, 16 May 2012 at 3:51 pm
I’d be very interested in a copy. I am working on a degree in Hebrew linguistics and am interested in all translation-related issues. Thanks!