CEB Common English Audio Edition

By: Common English Bible

Narrated by: uncredited

Length: 76 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

Listening to the Bible will change the way you understand scripture. The stories and poems and instructions comes in through the ears and consume your whole being as God's word becomes part of a living experience. The Common English Bible is not simply a revision or update of an existing translation. It is a bold new translation designed to meet the needs of Christians as they work to build a strong and meaningful relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

Who is it for?

The Common English Bible is committed to the whole church of Jesus Christ. To achieve this, the CEB represents the work of a diverse team with broad scholarship, including the work of over 120 scholars - men and women from 24 faith traditions in American, African, Asian, European, and Latino communities. As a result, the English translation of ancient words has an uncommon relevance for a broad audience of Bible readers - from children to scholars.

©2014 Common English Bible (P)2014 Common English Bible

peace at night

I love that there was a mixture of voices. I play this throughout every night. thank you. I am blessed by it.

No chapter division read out!

I really valued that the reading did not include chapter divisions or heading titles. It was a straight read unencumbered by superfluous text. Hearing just the biblical text without interruption made for a more meaningful understanding.

Excellent Translation And Narration

It’s too daunting for me to review The Bible on its content. There are so many books comprised of so many genres by so many authors that each one deserves its own evaluation of content.

Instead, I will focus on the translation, which sets this version apart from others. I found it very enjoyable and accessible, akin to the better translations of other ancient epics like Gilgamesh, The Iliad, and Beowulf. It makes these stories from the distant past more relevant and relatable for the modern reader.

The 120 translators for the Common English Bible, all from different denominations and backgrounds, went back to the most ancient texts available, including:

* The Dead Sea Scrolls
* The Septuagint, which is a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible made between 300-200 BCE
* The Vulgate, which is a Latin translation of the Bible made by Jerome in the 4th century CE
* The Syriac Peshitta, which is a Syriac translation of the Bible made in the 2nd century CE
* The Samaritan Pentateuch, which is a version of the first five books of Moses used by Samaritans

Using these sources for Biblical accuracy, and having a balance of word-for-word and thought-for-thought translation methods, gives me the confidence that I am hearing something as close to the original stories, poems, letters, and genealogy rosters that I can hope to understand without learning Hebrew and Aramaic.

Whether a reader’s purpose is spiritual or academic, I recommend this work. The multiple narrators strike a fine balance between entertaining and informative, but never melodramatic. The only drawback (as other reviewers have noted) is that the audiobook is not searchable by chapter or verse number, but this can be remedied by following along with a print version of the CEB. Most of the Bible stories originated through oral tradition, anyway, so perhaps this can be looked at as another way of staying true to the original sources.

Incredible Performance...layout for listening flaw

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Very good bible with solid performances. The only drawback for this is the lack of accessibility to go from one book of the bible to another. It is broken into several downloads but it is only listed Chapter 1, 2 , 3 and so on....no book titles within the collection. ie. I am doing a study on Amos...There is no way to get there except for an exhausting trial and error search (unless you know how many chapters are in each book of the bible off the top of your head.) I hope they get this updated and fixed because this truly is an excellent translation that should be easily available for everyone.

Not easy to navigate

Any additional comments?

It's fine if you want to listen to the Bible straight through in order. If you want to listen to certain books or chapters, they're difficult to find. Sections of the download include more than one book and chapters of books are not distinguished. It's a great version and I certainly recommend the Common English Bible in print. The audiobook has been less helpful to me.

Here is a chapter key for this wonderful bible.

The Common English Bible is a solid newer translation (2011) that is rendered in a way that makes the bible come alive for us. The readings by the narrators in this audio version are spectacular. However, some have been put off by the formatting of the audio version because it is rendered in 13 separate downloadable parts and doesn't provide the canonical book names in the table of contents. Please don't let that stop you from using it. Below, is a chapter key you can use to navigate around the files to get to where you want to go easily.

Here's a few points first:

1. The presentation is in 13 parts
2. The bible contains 66 books and 1189 chapters.
3. The presentation is thankfully rendered in canonical order chapter by chapter.
4. I went through it and compared it to the text and wrote down this chapter key. You can copy and paste it into a document, or screen shot it, or just come to this page and reference it to navigate around.
5. The numbers next to each book name in the list below are the chapter numbers of the books as rendered in each part navigable through the audio book table of contents. The italicized numbers next to those in the list are the canonical chapter numbers of the books as they appear in a text version of the bible.

I highly recommend the Common English Bible and I hope this audio version enriches your life. Here is a chapter key:

Common English Bible Audio Book Chapter Key

Part 1
Genesis 1-50 (1-50)
Exodus 51-90 (1-40)
Leviticus 91 (1)

Part 2
Leviticus 92-117 (2-27)
Numbers 118-153 (1-26)
Deuteronomy 154-182 (1-29)

Part 3
Deuteronomy 183-187 (29-34)
Joshua 188-211 (1-24)
Judges 212-232 (1-21)
Ruth 233-236 (1-4)
1 Samuel 237-267 (1-31)
2 Samuel 268-273 (1-6)

Part 4
2 Samuel 274-291 (7-24)
1 Kings 292-313 (1-22)
2 Kings 314-338 (1-25)
1 Chronicles 339-364 (1-26)

Part 5
1 Chronicles 365-367 (27-29)
2 Chronicles 368-403 (1-36)
Ezra 404-413 (1-10)
Nehemiah 414-426 (1-13)
Esther 427-436 (1-10)
Job 437-455 (1-19)

Part 6
Job 456-478 (20-42)
Psalms 479-546 (1-68)

Part 7
Psalms 547-628 (69-150)
Proverbs 629-637 (1-9)

Part 8
Proverbs 638-659 (10-31)
Ecclesiastes 660-671 (1-12)
Song of Solomon 672-679 (1-8)
Isaiah 680-728 (1-49)

Part 9
Isaiah 729-745 (50-66)
Jeremiah 746-797 (1-52)
Lamentations 798-802 (1-5)
Ezekiel 803-819 (1-17)

Part 10
Ezekiel 820-850 (18-48)
Daniel 851-862 (1-12)
Hosea 863-876 (1-14)
Joel 877-879 (1-3)
Amos 880-888 (1-9)
Obadiah 889 (1)
Jonah 890-893 (1-4)
Micah 894-900 (1-7)
Nahum 901-903 (1-3)
Habakkuk 904-906 (1-3)
Zephaniah 907-909 (1-3)
Haggai 910 (1)

Part 11
Haggai 911 (2)
Zechariah 912-925 (1-14)
Malachi 926-929 (1-4)
Matthew 930-957 (1-28)
Mark 958-973 (1-16)
Luke 974-997 (1-24)
John 998-1001 (1-4)

Part 12
John 1002-1018 (5-21)
Acts 1019-1046 (1-28)
Romans 1047-1062 (1-16)
1 Corinthians 1063-1078 (1-16)
2 Corinthians 1079-1091 (1-13)
Galatians 1092 (1)

Part 13
Galatians 1093-1097 (2-6)
Ephesians 1098-1103 (1-6)
Philippians 1104-1107 (1-4)
Colossians 1108-1111 (1-4)
1 Thessalonians 1112-1116 (1-5)
2 Thessalonians 1117-1119 (1-3)
1 Timothy 1120-1125 (1-6)
2 Timothy 1126-1129 (1-4)
Titus 1130-1132 (1-3)
Philemon 1133 (1)
Hebrews 1134-1146 (1-13)
James 1147-1151 (1-5)
1 Peter 1152-1156 (1-5)
2 Peter 1157-1159 (1-30
1 John 1160-1164 (1-5)
2 John 1165 (1)
3 John 1166 (1)
Jude 1167 (1)
Revelation 1168-1189 (1-22)

Great Translation and Performance

The translation is incredible. It's accurate but words things in a much natural way without making it sound childish. The readers alternate which makes it easy to listen to. I loved it.

Much easier to understand and binge

I wish you could skip through chapters by name or passage but you can’t. I actually was able to make it through from start to finish which has been a challenge for me in the past. Wonderful stories. I’ll be revisiting often. ♥️

Unusable as a Resource

While the reading is great, and the recording is good this is a virtually unusable resource. It is broken up in over 1000 unlabeled chapters. Not even the start of the New Testament is clearly defined without hunting for it.

If each book was labeled, then it would be an amazing an invaluable product.

1189 chapters?! N

How are you supposed to be able to go back and find anything. Nothing is labeled. Just chapters 1-1189. Very poorly done.