The Word of God never returns void—even if you listen to it in traffic, at the gym, or while folding laundry.
A growing number of Bible resources give listeners the chance to engage with Scripture through their headphones, with new platforms and audio versions making it easier to access Bible reading throughout the day.
Creators and fans say that even without putting eyes to the page, they’re able to read more Scripture and be spurred to deeper study.
“What’s special about [listening] is it makes it easier to just marinate on those big themes of Scripture,” said Jonathan Bailey, cofounder of Dwell, an app for listening to the Bible. “It makes it easier to have the Scriptures wash over you and just be in a posture of soaking or dwelling.”
Dwell launched in 2018, back when Bailey said most Scripture resources were still focused on reading. The app, funded through Kickstarter, now has 2 million downloads.
The YouVersion Bible app added 43 new Bible audio versions in 2023 alone and reported that audio chapter plays were up by 47 percent over the past year. The English Standard Version (ESV) has recently released several new audio versions as well, featuring a range of different voices and accents, including Irish singer Kristyn Getty and Bible teacher Jackie Hill Perry.
The rise of audio Bible resources corresponds with a broader listening trend as people increasingly rely on their smartphones for information and entertainment. Americans are three to four times more likely to listen to podcasts than they were a decade ago, according to Pew Research Center.
While listening to Scripture can maximize time in the Word since it can be done while multitasking, people may question whether it’s as beneficial as traditional study with the text.
Theologian Michael Reeves narrates one of the new ESV audio Bibles, slated to release this week. President of the Union School of Theology in the UK, Reeves himself listens to the Bible, saying it helps him get through larger chunks of Scripture at a time and be more immersed in the Word in his day-to-day than if he were only reading it on the page.
He thinks the new audio options can have a positive effect by encouraging even more scriptural engagement.
“My sense is that the ability to simply consume more Scripture actually creates an appetite for more Scripture,” said Reeves, author of books such as Rejoice and Tremble and Delighting in the Trinity. “When I consume audio, I’m thinking about the scriptural things and it makes me want to check some things out later. By having listened, it’s not making me think I’ve had my fill for today; it’s actually pushing me to want to read more as well.”
This is especially important for younger Bible readers who are used to consuming information and media in smaller chunks and formats besides print. Over half of Bible readers access Scripture on their phones at least some of the time, and Gen Z is the first cohort to prefer digital over print, the American Bible Society’s State of the Bible survey found.
Jenny Steinbach, one of the people behind the all-female voiced her.BIBLE, has also found that younger generations are more likely to engage with Scripture when offered an audio option.
One of Steinbach’s colleagues at Cru was leading a women’s Bible study on a college campus and was struggling to get the participants to do the reading. That changed after showing them the her.BIBLE app.
“They came excited for Bible study and excited about God’s Word because they were listening as they were walking to class or in between things in their normal daily life,” Steinbach said.
Don Jones, Bible publisher at Crossway, which releases the ESV, also noted that audio is an important option for those who struggle with reading because of learning disabilities or physical challenges, as well as those who are simply too tired to open their Bibles and read after a long day.
As physical media like cassette tapes then as digital recordings, audio Bibles have a long history on the mission field, with ministries such as Faith Comes by Hearing using “listening groups” as a way to distribute the Bible more broadly and efficiently.
Though audio has many advantages, most people don’t view it as a replacement for reading Scripture but rather as a complement. Reeves notes that reading in print is better for in-depth study, since it allows the reader to make cross-references and to stop and reflect on what they’re reading.
Comprehension of the text overall isn’t necessarily impacted by the format. While some studies have found that reading has a slight edge over audio, most experts agree that any comprehension gap that might exist is minimal.
“I wouldn’t want people to feel that reading is good and audio is a poor substitute. I think audio adds something, which is really beneficial,” Reeves said. “But I’d equally want to say that audio alone won’t give you what you can get if you’re also able to read and study and push deeper. A combination of the two is a wonderful opportunity. Let’s realize both offer something. Let’s try to get the best of both worlds.”
Audio Bibles also have the opportunity to connect with readers by putting God’s Word in different voices.
For the Dwell app, Bailey said he and his brother found narrators through an ad on Craigslist. They were able to find a diverse group of Christian narrators, including a female voice and a Kenyan voice. Since then, Dwell has continued to expand its voice offerings and consequently the diversity among them, which Bailey believes is important for their users.
“It was important to make sure that we were trying to give the Bible a full breadth of the Christian expression and not just a kind of white, middle America, evangelical kind of expression,” Bailey explained.
It can be meaningful or just easier for listeners to hear the Bible read by a voice that sounds like them; accents that sound different can put distance between a person and the text.
“I found by having an American reading the Bible tome, just in a different accent, meant that there was a little bit of distance created,” Reeves, who is British, said. “Some words are said differently, which means that there’s almost like a bit of buffering going on between the reading and taking it in.”
Steinbach has heard a similar sentiment related to gender when gathering feedback from users of her.BIBLE. Many spent years only hearing the Bible read in a man’s voice and appreciate the opportunity to hear a woman’s voice.
On the other hand, some people pick up on different wording and details when they hear a new voice reading. Offering a range of narrators allows readers to choose which version they find most impactful and to switch to another version if they tire of one voice and want to hear another.
Beyond the sound of the voices, Jones also said Crossway looked for ESV narrators who have spent their lives immersed in Scripture.
Both Jones and Reeves noted that how a person reads a passage is, in a way, an interpretation of that passage—to an extent, the narrator chooses how to convey the sense of the verse by what words they emphasize, the tone they use, and more.
“That intimate knowledge of the Word comes through in how they narrate,” Jones said. “For example, listening to Ray Ortlund’s narration, his cadence, where he places his emphasis, his emotional tone, where he chooses to pause or slow down or speed up … that’s flowing out of his deep familiarity with Scripture, [which] comes through in a way that I hope blesses listeners.”
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