the Voice of Matthew

Last week I read Mark Driscoll's Confessions of a Reformission Rev. & I spoke with my mentor about it yesterday. I told him that the single greatest thing I came away with from that reading was the passion & love that Mr. Driscoll has for Jesus & that it inspired me to reacquaint myself with Jesus. He challenged me to read one or all of the gospels in one sitting. So, last night I decided to read Matthew through the new book from the Voice project. (I have reviewed the Dust Off Their Feet before - the retelling of Acts).
Lauren Winner, who is one of my favorite authors & someone who has graciously let me interview her, has written the retelling of this gospel. Matthew is the most Jewish of the gospels & Ms. Winner is known for her Jewish upbringing. One of the outgrowths of this is the running commentary throughout the text. If you remember back in the 90's there was a show on VH1 called Pop-Up Video. They would play music video's & they would flash pop-up blurbs which would tell random facts about the band, the video and other random & funny bits. Ms. Winner's running commentary is not meant to be funny or take away from the story at all (and it does not take away from the story, it enhances it), but that came to my mind.
I did really enjoy reading the gospel straight through & plan on doing that method more often, but I do not think that I will do it with one of the Voice projects again. I guess I do not understand the purpose of it. There are plenty of Bible translations & paraphrases, and the three released so far in this project are nothing all that remarkable. I could maybe see them used for people who might be turned off to reading from a leather-bound, gilded edged Bible, but then I would personally just give them The Message.