Title: The Story, NIV: The Bible as One Continuing Story of God and His People
Editor: Zondervan Bibles
Narrated by: Michael Blain-Rozgay, Allison Moffett
Category: Religion
Audio published: June 24, 2011 by Zondervan
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Add: Goodreads
Purchase: Audible | Amazon | Book Depository
“The Greatest Story Ever Told” is more than just a cliche.
God has gone to great lengths to rescue lost and hurting people. That is what The Story is all about – the story of the Bible, God’s great love affair with humanity. Condensed into 31 accessible chapters, The Story sweeps you into the unfolding progression of Bible characters and events from Genesis to Revelation. Using the clear, accurate, and easy-to-understand text of the NIV, it allows the stories, poems, and teachings of the Bible to read like a novel. And like any good story, The Story is filled with intrigue, drama, conflict, romance, and redemption. Features:
•The story of the Bible… in its own words
•Events, characters, and teachings of the Bible arranged chronologically
•Today’s New International Version text
The Story is a tough one to review. It’s an abridged version of the Bible with some added transitions to give it flow and to give you a bit of the editors interpretation. I have to imagine it’s hard to pick and choose what to keep and what to leave out, but I do think it hits a lot of the high points. It’s presented chronologically and without a lot of the repetition in the Gospels. We went through The Story as a church, with the sermons each week focusing on a chapter, so I listened to it over 8 months, which actually made it lose some of its continuity, but that’s beside the point.
Overall, I thought it was well-done, good for a Christian who feels intimidated by reading The Bible as a whole, although I personally think that’s a better choice. The stories are easy to understand, the commentary connecting the stories made it flow well. I’m not going to comment on the plot or make content judgements. The Bible is full of great stories, passion, love, battles, miracles. poetry. It’s worth a read, even in an abridged form. This is a very readable/listenable version. And it has a happy ending.
I listen to a lot of audio books. Most have one or two readers. This was a full cast recording which I found a little distracting. Yes, it helps differentiate speakers, but first I’d be like “really, do you think she sounded like that,” then the music would be too loud or I’d be looking around for birds in the house when they were just on the audio. People who are not regular audio book listeners may appreciate it, may feel it’s like listening to a play. It’s just not my cup of tea. I did choose the audio over the print edition because I seem to have more time lately to listen than to sit down and read, which is a shame.
I tried this one (in print) and disliked it so much. Too much was left out for me. The stories ended up feeling chopping and leaving me confused. Thanks for your review though. I had no idea the audio was available. I kinda like multi cast sometimes.