A third major dramatized audio Bible just released features a change of characters in front of the microphone and also behind the scenes.

The Truth & Life Dramatized Audio Bible New Testament for a Catholic audience was co-produced by Carl Amari, the man behind Thomas Nelson's 2010 The Word of Promise dramatized audio Bible, which featured the New King James Version.

But Amari's new $2 million production, using the Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition, has been published and distributed by Zondervan, which brought out the 2007 Inspired by... The Bible Experience, using the Today's New International Version.

Among the 70-plus actors voicing the 22-hour Truth & Life audio New Testament is Blair Underwood, who portrays Mark. He portrayed Jesus in Zondervan's edition, while Malcolm McDowell, who voiced Solomon for Thomas Nelson, speaks the words of Caiaphas in the new one. Truth & Life's Luke is voiced by Michael York, narrator for The Word of Promise.

Including a special foreword by Pope Benedict XVI, the Truth & Life New Testament was released last month with no advance promotion in the Christian retail. It comprises 18 CDs and retails for $49.99.

Amari told Christian Retailing that as a Catholic, he had long wanted to create an audio Bible for fellow Catholics. After completing The Word of Promise, Thomas Nelson officials had told him that they felt that they could not do justice to a Catholic version, he said. "They said they did not sell Catholic products. ... I asked them if I could take it elsewhere, and they said yes, which was really great of them."

Read the full report in the January issue of Christian Retailing.

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