“Our people have been reading the Bible for years,” said Dave Peterson, senior pastor at Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church. “When we suggested listening to the New Testament many wondered why. But hearing is turning out to be a very different experience from reading. New doors of understanding are opening all over the place.”
“Most of us have been reading the Bible for many, many years,” added Dr. Ed Young, senior pastor of Second Baptist Church. “Listening to God’s Word, however, can add even greater depth and understanding to our times in the Scripture.”
The Rev. Laurens A. Hall, rector at St. John the Divine Episcopal Church, said, “Parishioners are ecstatic about the You’ve Got The Time format, experiencing the Word of God as they had never done before.”
I have to agree. Listening is a completely different experience. I have the New Testament on my I-Pod. Listening requires a different type of concentration. I also often remind others that the Scriptures were read and listened to in the congregations and it was only very recently, relatively speaking, that we had easy access to the written Word.
I also heartily agree. Unfortunately, however, while it’s easy to find audio Bibles in the standard evangelical versions (NIV, NKJV etc.), it’s virtually impossible to find audio Bibles in the translations most commonly used in the oldline (ex-mainline) denominations, such as the NRSV. I hope the demand for biblical recordings continues to grow and spreads far beyond Houston, so that publishers are encouraged to come out with a wider variety of audio versions of the Holy Scriptures.
After all, the famous collect by Archbishop Crnamer about the Scriptures mentions hearing along with reading, studying, etc.
“Almighty God, who caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to HEAR them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life…”
(Collect for the Sunday closest to Nov. 16th in the 1979 BCP).
BTW, did everyone note the sad, appalling statistic about the massive level of biblical ignorance we’re facing in the USA today? The figure cited in this news report is that an incredible 65% of Americans have never read the whole New Testament, much less the entire Bible.
Let’s reflect on the significance of that: a whopping 65%, or virtually two-thirds of the national population, has never been exposed to the full witness of the New Testament. That sizeable majority of the nation must include millions of church goers and self-identified Christians. If they were able to listen to God’s Word while commuting to and from work, or while working out, or doing chores at home and so on, that would certainly increase the chances to diminish that unacceptably high number. May it be so.
David Handy+
NRA,
Try amazon for [url=http://www.amazon.com/NRSV-Audio-Testament-Thomas-Nelson/dp/0529114933]the NRSV audio New Testament[/url]
Also check [url=http://www.biblebible.com/New_Revised_Standard_audio.asp]the Audio Bible Story[/url] for the NRSV and a variety of other versions.
That’s “STORE” not “STORY”. 🙂
Thanks, libraryjim (#3).
I already have a copy of the NRSV NT in audio form, but up until now I didn’t know that the OT was also available. But does this new dramatized Audio Bible Store version include the Deutero-canonical books (or Apocrypha)? Probably not, so there may still be work to do “to get the Word out.”
My point was that it’s extremely rare to find audio Bibles done in the NRSV or the Catholic NAB, etc. in your usual Christian bookstore, or at the premier Christian discount house, Christian Book Distributors. But I’m glad to know that those previously unavailable audio Bibleversions do in fact now exist. Thanks be to God
And thanks again for the tip, Jim.
David Handy+
I think that Max McLean is good in everything that he does including his reading of the Bible. (You can get it a chapter at a time by clicking on the verse of the day at Biblegateway.com and see how he reads.)
Just a thought:
for their next project, they should re-introduce the concept of [url=http://www.frksj.org/liturgy8.htm]”Lecto Divina”[/url].