Celebrity actors lend their voices to Audio Bible project

A complete audio version of the New King James Bible was released in October by Christian publishing company Thomas Nelson. A nearly four-year project
, The Word of Promise, all 98 hours and 79 CDs worth, uses more than 600 actors, plus full score and sound effects, to tell every story of the Old and New Testament.

Among the actors to lend their voice to the project are Jim Caviezel (as Jesus, a role Caviezel also played in The Passion of the Christ), Richard Dreyfuss (Moses), Gary Sinise (David), Jason Alexander (Joseph), Marisa Tomei (Mary Magdalene), Stacy Keach (Paul), Louis Gossett, Jr. (John), Jon Voight (Abraham), and Max von Sydow (Noah), who portrayed Jesus in the 1965 film The Greatest Story Ever Told.

The project was the inspiration of radio producer Carl Amari, who brought the idea to US-based Christian publishers Thomas Nelson Inc. in 2006. The first portion of the project, of just the New Testament, was released in 2007 and has sold more than 700,000 copies.

The complete Word of Promise comes as a digital download ($22.95) at www.thewordofpromise.com, as an MP3 set (11 MP3 CDs, $49.99) at that site or at Amazon.com, and as a CD set ($73.99), available at those sites and through international Amazon outlets. CD and MP3 versions include a bonus DVD with actor interviews and behind-the-scenes footage.