Voice of Matthew

By Lauren F. Winner

The Voice of Matthew is a unique retelling of the life of Jesus from the perspective of a Jewish believer who wants to connect the past with the future. The writer of this retelling is Lauren Winner, a young Jewish woman who has become a follower of Jesus. She is an extremely talented writer and a lecturer at Duke Divinity School that brings an intellectual edge to the biblical story. At the heart of this retelling is an accurate rendering of the traditional Bible text with historical and cultural expansions of the story that are placed in italic type to help the reader differentiate the expansions from the Bible text. Throughout the book the writer adds significant statements as ancillary asides. These ancillary statements are separated from the biblical text as ruled text. They include further development of the narrative setting, connective statements to explain the story, or development of character or background information. Because Lauren has written all of the material, the elaborations in the text and the ancillary statements are in the same style and tone as the biblical text and make for a thoroughly stimulating read. While Lauren's writing style is very conversational, her scholarship is of the highest quality. An extremely accurate rendering of the biblical text is the foundation for this provocative and enlightening retelling of Matthew's Gospel. The reader will feel as if he is having a personal discussion with Matthew. A unique formatting of the narrative text of the Scriptures is being used in all of the Gospel products in The Voice. It is readily apparent who the speaker is in dialogue without the interruptions to the story found in most versions of the Bible, the narrative element of the text is clear, and the ancillary material is easily distinguished from the Bible. The story reads like a novel with fascinating bonus gems provided to make this one of the most satisfying Bible reading experiences ever. The biblical scholarship and writing style have been checked by two biblical reviewers, the senior theological scholar on The Voice Scripture Project, the senior writer, a biblical archaeologist, copyeditors and proofreaders, and the executive editor of the project. Lauren's work in Matthew has already been used to compile The Last Eyewitness, Songs from the Voice volume two, and the upcoming Son of the Most High. The Voice is a Scripture project to rediscover the story of the Bible. It is holistic, beautiful, sensitive, and balanced. As a part of the project a contextualized version of the Bible is being created through a truly unique retelling process with an emphasis on the cultural transference to the postmodern culture and with great attention being given to literary artistry.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0529123495
• ISBN13: 9780529123497
• Release Date: February 2007
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.54 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.3" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

I liked it.

I bought this book not realizing that it was a revision of the book in Matthew in very plain and easy to understand wording. I think I thought it would be more of a commentary on the book of Matthew. I still liked it, I know that it will come in handy when I am studying as this has some wonderful insight into Matthew.

Unusual and helpful format

I am enjoying this treatment of the gospel of Messiah. Winner's amplifications are helpful; it's like hearing the Bible read by a friend.

Great resource and retelling!

Well the Voice Project has done it again. Another great resource and Biblical narrative retelling! The recent book out is called The Voice of Matthew and the author was Lauren Winner (author of Girl Meets God, Mudhouse Sabbath and Real Sex). I was definitely interesting in this retelling because of Lauren's Jewish heritage and the perspective that Matthew writes his Gospel account. It did not disappoint. To start off (and this is with the other books in the project), the forward really sets the book up well (I guess the point of a forward...). Even if you are some one you has never seen or read a book of the Bible, this gives great information on what is in your hands. The prologue sets up the anticipation for the coming Messiah that will be talked about in the coming pages. It also however shows the larger story that this anticipation fits into. The feeling you get from this is "this isn't just A story; it's YOUR Story; it's MY story; it's OUR story". I was wondering how the genealogy would work out in this retelling. There is more detail here about who the people are in the line to Jesus and the events that happen that bring it to the point of Jesus. This could be extended out more to show more of the narrative but that would probably be a book itself. The narrator also gives great reasoning fro the genealogy. It gives a point to having this within the narrative instead of just a boring list for a 5th grader to memorize for the Bible Bowl in a couple of weeks. The script-like retelling of the narrative flows well once again (as in the other books). It set it up great for sharing in group settings, worship settings, class settings, or even mentally while reading by yourself (better visual picture in my head at least). The Matthew narrator again is insightful and gives life and personality to the person Matthew. The narrator always seems to bring us back to the bigger picture. The narrator shows the forest; the narrative identifies the trees (the inner workings). I love the insight into why Jesus has disciples. It was about community. God at His essences is a yearning for community. I was very intrigued to see the interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount. This was a beautiful monologue! It vividly showed the intro of the "sermon" and then moves into Jesus' interpretation of the Law. I love the wording of Jesus calling the people (beloved). This reminded me of Henri Nowen's writings. There is a beautiful interpretation of the Lord's Prayer. The Sermon on the Mount section is worth the price of the book! Again the stories and parables work so well in the script form. It is effective for first time reading or even bringing the words back to life for someone who is an "old vet" of reading the Bible. Matthew 10 chapter really shows the teacher/student perspective that Matthew used so much in his Gospel story. It's a sending out but also of a passing on of things that Jesus wanted his disciples to have. The parab