Who We Are
Welcome to the Spoken English Bible, an oral translation of the Bible into everyday American English!
Our History
Our story starts back in the late 2010s when a group of veteran Oral Bible Storying experts decided to craft a story set of oral Bible stories to use in discipleship and evangelism on the Youth with a Mission base in Tyler, TX. The stories were a success, and soon, people were talking about how amazing it would be if the whole Bible was translated into Spoken English. Individuals from other translation organizations in other cities started volunteering their time and talents to translate the Book of Jonah (the Story of Jonah) into spoken English as well as develop a whole set of exegetical resources to accompany the completed translation. The translation was a success. Oral translation teams from around the world listened to the translation and the exegetical resources and started asking for more books of the Bible to be translated so they could use the resources as they completed their own translation projects.
In 2023 the Spoken English Bible became an official SIL International translation project with paid teams of translators working on the Book of Luke (Luke’s Good News) and the Book of Ruth (Ruth’s Story). By the end of the year, there were teams also working on Psalms (the Songbook) and the Book of Daniel. Since then, the project has continued to grow and expand, and we’re getting closer to our goal of translating the entire Bible into everyday American English.
Our Products
The Spoken English Bible
The Spoken English Bible is our translation of the original Greek and Hebrew texts into everyday American English. It’s held to the same quality standards as any other Bible translation to ensure a high-quality, faithful translation of the texts designed to communicate clearly to American audiences.
Book Introductions
Each book in the Spoken English Bible comes with a 5-7 minute recording that introduces the book and provides listeners with information like when the book was written, who the book’s author is, key cultural issues the book discusses, and an overview of the book’s content.
Translation Commentaries
Do you have questions about the translation? The translation commentaries are the places to check. Each section of Scripture comes with a podcast episode that dives into the text, exploring exegetical, linguistic, translation, and cultural issues with the translators themselves.
Overview Stories
Sometimes it’s hard to figure out how an individual passage fits into the book’s larger context, and overview stories are designed to help. Each 5–7 minute overview story summarizes the main themes, ideas, and stories from each major section of the book. Listening through all of a book’s overview stories gives the listener an overview of the book’s structure, themes, and main stories, making it easier to place individual stories in the appropriate context.
