Have you heard? The VOICE

I agree that The Voice seems to have put 'the-cart-before-the-horse' when they admit that they started by creating an English rendering and then adjusted their rendering to "align" with the original texts. But what was that initial English rendering based on, if not original language texts? If the first rendering is actually based upon preceding works of English translation, then The Voice is truly more paraphrase of those sources than its own original translation. And is this rendering merely examined ("vetted") by the biblical scholars?

So, the information available is a mixed bag.

 

I regard the "not starting within [a box]" comment as the result of misguided marketing hype. But two other statements you emphasized can also be applied to many genuine translations: "words are translated into more common terminology" ('churchy' words primarily); and, "word order and parts of speech are sometimes altered".

A third: Wayne Hasting's comment that "the true voice of the human author of that particular section of Scripture" could be misunderstood as marginalizing God as The Author, but I think he was alluding to what is more fully explained in the context of the Preface {my underline} --

... About 40 different human authors are believed to have been inspired by God to write the Scriptures. The Voice retains the perspective of the human writers. Most English translations attempt to even out the styles of the different authors in sentence structure and vocabulary. Instead, The Voice distinguishes the uniqueness of each author. The heart of the project is retelling the story of the Bible in a form as fluid as modern literary works yet remaining true to the original manuscripts.​

Is retaining the literary characteristics of the human writers a bad thing?

 

Can you cite some specifics that made you feel this way?

 

Can you appreciate how it must sound to 'uninitiated' heathen to hear Jesus being referred to as "the Word"? I think we have become so comfortable with some of our jargon that we don't realize how foreign it can sound to the rest of the world.

Remember that logos has been broadly interpreted in English also as "saying", "utterance", "speech" and otherwise miscellaneously (in the KJV about 30 different ways). Could you have identified the term that represents logos in Matthew 21:24, Mark 1:45, Luke 5:15, Acts 15:27, and in Romans 9:28 below? (KJV) --

And Jesus answered and said unto them, I also will ask you one thing, which if ye tell me, I in like wise will tell you by what authority I do these things.

But he went out, and began to publish [it] much, and to blaze abroad the matter, insomuch that Jesus could no more openly enter into the city, but was without in desert places: and they came to him from every quarter.

But so much the more went there a fame abroad of him: and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by him of their infirmities.

We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who shall also tell [you] the same things by mouth.

For he will finish the work, and cut [it] short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.​

So, could logos in John 1:1 have been properly rendered as 'the Thing', 'the Matter' or 'the Fame' was with God in the beginning? Technically, yes. We can probably thank John Wycliffe for giving to us what seems to be now a very elegant translation of logos in reference to the Divine. But 'the Voice' really does not seem to be outside the semantic range of the Greek word.

 

In John 1:1 of The Voice version it clearly states that "The Voice was and is God."

Now, looking at John 1:1-3 (KJV) --

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
​

Of course, we see that the title "Creator" does not appear in the KJV, but there is the statement that "all things were made by him". Who is "him"? The closest antecedent is "God" in the immediate prior verse, although most interpretations are that "him" refers back to the "Word". But as just defined previously, the "Word" is God and so that sense "The Voice" (or "The Word") & God are together AND separately the "Creator". Genesis also tells us that the Holy Spirit was also involved with creation.

It almost seems that The Voice rendering is making a distinction between "The Voice" and the "Creator" (God) with their wording in verse 1:2 {their italic, my underline} --

"This celestial Voice remained ever present with the Creator". ​

 

Here are eleven Biblical Scholars listed as contributers in the front of The Voice New Testament --

Joseph Blair, ThD
Darrell L. Bock, PhD
David B. Capes, PhD
Allen Culpepper, PhD
Peter H. Davids, PhD
Joseph Dodson, PhD
Peter Rhea Jones, Sr., PhD
Troy Miller, PhD
Felisi Sorgwe, PhD
Kenneth Waters, Sr., PhD
Jack Wisdom, JD​

Other contributers under the heading of "Old Testament Biblical Scholars" --

David B. Capes, PhD
Peter H. Davids, PhD
J. Andrew Dearman, PhD
Bret Dutton, PhD
Dave Garber, PhD
Mark Gignilliat, PhD
Sheri Klouda, PhD
Tremper Longman, PhD
Creig Marlowe, PhD
Frank Patrick, PhD
Chuck Pitts, PhD
Brian Russell, PhD
Felisi Sorgwe, PhD
Kristin Swenson, PhD
Nancy de Claisse Walford, PhD​