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Free Online Complete Audio Bible

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Notes

1) I don’t much like the sound of my own voice but it is dismal to note how few free online audio bibles are available so here’s one.

2) The translation is that of the World English Bible which is an update of the 1901 ASV. I disagree with a number of its textual and translation decisions and it seems to me that in a number of places the English simply doesn’t make sense, but it has three significant advantages:

a. it is public domain so that non-commercial use is free;

b. it is related to the ESV (itself a grandchild of the ASV) which means that it is easy silently to read the ESV along with a WEB audio recording;

c. it is “conservative” in the sense of being more “literal” or “wooden”. I’ve little understanding of the philosophies of translation and I know that every term one cares to use is liable to criticism, but most understand roughly what I mean by these words.

3) There are lots of different ways that audio Bibles can be used. I have used an audio Bible alongside a visual reading of the actual text – with a hard copy of the Bible in front of me. That is why this reading is faster than most audio Bibles – we can follow written words as they are spoken much more quickly than spoken words with no text in front of us. The point of such an exercise is

a. it increases the likelihood of properly attending to what the Scripture says since it is coming in on two channels at once;

b. it provides a discipline – one can decide to listen to / read a certain number of chapters / minutes each day and the fact that this is, in part, on audio files makes it easier to keep to one’s commitments.

4) The reading takes around 54 hours and so I have arranged it into 56 readings of around an hour each – see below.

5) There are various choices to be made in such an exercise. Here are mine:

a. Translation: World English Bible – see above

b. Accent: English

c. Posh or street: midway

d. Pace: fast but could be faster

e. Error tolerance: quite high – there are lots of stumbles but few outright errors. I will correct the latter as and when I find them.

6) There’s an alternative to this reading – also free, online, complete, and World English Bible. David Williams’ reading is at http://www.audiotreasure.com . It’s American accent, medium pace (70 hours) with very few errors indeed.

7) I don’t know much about the techy side of things but this has been produced using a cheap microphone, Audacity with free MP3 export thingy, and Windows Media Player 10 for listening. Windows Media Player 10 makes it easy to put these files on an MP3 player or to burn them as either MP3 or audio CDs.

8) Total cost: this has taken me around 200 hours, cost £9 for the microphone and whatever (small) charge it is to have it up here on my site. How I wish that there were 100 free, online, complete audio Bibles to choose from. It’s not that I like mine or am proud of it but it’s of some use to me, it may be of some use to someone else, and it may provoke (inspire or, more likely, irritate) others into producing audio Bibles of their own.

9) Please EMAIL ME if you find a fault.

Book	Chapters	Size MB	Length mins	Book		Chapters	Size MB			Length mins
Genesis	50	141	154	Matthew		28	85			93
Exodus	40	113	125	Mark		16	55			60
Leviticus	27	86	94	Luke		24	88			96
Numbers	36	120	132	John		21	68			75
Deuteronomy	34	104	114	Acts		28	87			95
Joshua	24	72	78	Romans		16	39			43
Judges	21	71	78	I Corinthians		16	37			40
Ruth	4	10	11	II Corinthians		13	24			27
I Samuel	31	93	102	Galatians		6	13			14
II Samuel	24	74	81	Ephesians		6	13			15
I Kings	22	86	94	Philippians		4	9			10
II Kings	25	80	87	Colossians		4	8			9
I Chronicles	29	85	93	I Thessalonians		5	7			8
II Chronicles	36	99	108	II Thessalonians	3			4	5
Ezra	10	30	33	I Timothy		6	9			10
Nehemiah	13	42	45	II Timothy		4	7			8
Esther	10	22	24	Titus		3	4			5
Job	42	71	78	Philemon		1	2			2
Psalms	150	176	192	Hebrews		13	29			32
Proverbs	31	67	68	James		5	10			10
Ecclesiastes	12	22	24	I Peter		5	11			12
Song of Songs	8	11	12	II Peter		3	7			7
Isaiah	66	139	127	I John		5	10			11
Jeremiah	52	156	171	II John		1	1			2
Lamentations	5	14	15	III John		1	1			2
Ezekiel	48	142	156	Jude		1	3			3
Daniel	12	44	49	Revelation		22	45			50
Hosea	14	20	22				Total			744m
Joel	3	8	9							(12h 24m)
Amos	9	16	17
Obadiah	1	3	3
Jonah	4	5	5
Micah	7	12	13
Nahum	3	5	5
Habakkuk	3	6	5
Zephaniah	3	6	7
Haggai	2	4	4
Zechariah	14	22	25
Malachi	4	7	7