How A Voice Actor Trusted God And Created A New Bible Translation

What if a simple Easter reading turned into a four–year journey to make Scripture clear, warm, and deeply readable? That’s the path Dan Parr took, blending his craft as a professional voice actor with a steady, faithful approach to translation so more people can encounter the Bible without tripping over dated language or dense phrasing. Guided by Proverbs 16:3, Dan shares how reluctance gave way to calling, and how prayer plus meticulous research shaped a version that preserves meaning while speaking directly to modern listeners.

We dig into the nuts and bolts: starting with the public–domain World English Bible, refining verse by verse, and validating choices against trusted translations like NIV, NLT, RSV, and NET. Dan explains why concision matters for comprehension, how he updates ancient measures and terms, and what it took to tackle challenging books like Corinthians without thinning the theology. As a narrator, he reveals how pacing, tone, and pauses turn text into an immersive, living experience—one reason thousands of hours have already been streamed on Audible.

Accessibility sits at the heart of this story. Dan outlines flexible ways to engage Scripture—chronological and traditional orders, start-any-month reading plans, and single-book editions for focused study—so newcomers and seasoned readers alike can find an on-ramp that fits real life. We also look ahead to Dad’s Words to Gen Z, a year of short daily devotionals crafted to encourage a generation navigating doubt, purpose, and identity with a steady fatherly voice.

If you’re curious about how faith and craft can work together to serve readers, or you’re searching for a Bible you can actually stick with, this conversation brings practical ideas and heartfelt insight. Listen, share it with someone who’s been hesitant to open a Bible, and tell us which passage you want to hear in a fresh voice. Subscribe, leave a review, and help more people discover a clear path back into Scripture.

Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!
Start for FREE

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Transcript

Welcome, Sponsor, And Guest Intro

SPEAKER_01 0:34

Hello everyone, thank you again for joining me on another episode of the Dorsers show. Today's episode is sponsored by your duty audio group, which inspires an uplifts through discussions, testimonies, and teachings, equipping listeners for meaningful conversations. Today's guest is Dan Parr, who is a passionate follower of Jesus Christ and gifted Bible narrator. He has a deep love for God's word and desire to make it accessible and understandable for everyone. He is a publisher and narrator of the easy to understand read Bible. His voice is clear, warm and engaging. Engaging delivery, help bring the biblical stories and teachings to life. He has also produced online Bible study materials and podcasts that help listeners grow in their faith and knowledge of God. Dan, thank you so much for coming on the show today.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

It is my pleasure. Thank you so much for allowing me to. As soon as I saw your podcast out there, I thought, oh man, I'd love to be a part of that. And you were gracious enough to host me, so thank you.

Life Verse And Calling To Create

SPEAKER_01 1:57

Yeah, definitely. I I'd like to get, you know, different topics and different ideas and you know conversations going, and you know, this is a unique one. I never had anybody come on that uh exactly authored and done a background study for a new translation of the Bible before. But I'd like to open up with an icebreaker question on my show. And today's icebreaker question is what's the best piece of advice you ever received?

SPEAKER_00 2:33

That is a great question, and I'm glad you asked that. And it came to me early in my life, unexpectedly. I was reading the book of Proverbs, and I came across Proverbs 16, 3. Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed. And I really took that to heart. When I read it, it just something really resonated with me. And so I started thinking about that verse and became one of my life verses, honestly, Dorsey. And I was thinking about that and getting ready. I was in my early 20s, getting ready to make a major move across country. And that verse had been running in my mind for months. And as I was getting ready to leave, my father presented me with a Bible. And in the beginning of the Bible, you know, the little dedication from and to, he had wrote under there, Commit to the Lord, whatever you do and your plans will succeed, Proverbs 16, 3. And I had never told him about that verse that was meaningful to me. He just happened to randomly write that. Now, we know it's not random, right? It was the Lord orchestrating that. But yeah, so that's that's one of the verses that has always meant something to me. And it's still one that I try to live by as I engage in any new venture. Am I committed to the Lord? Meaning, is it his will necessarily, and not necessarily me trying to put my own influence into it? But can I say, Lord, this is yours. If you want to bless it, bless it. If you want me to go another way, that's fine too. It's all about you, not necessarily me. So I would say that's the best piece of advice I've received. Commit to the Lord, whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.

Why Another Translation Exists

SPEAKER_01 4:10

Amen. There's so many, as I, you know, mentioned a little bit ago, you know, you order a new Bible translation, and there's so many different Bible translations out there that we can read, we can get a hold of, or we can go on a Bible app, different Bible apps, even, and go through the list of different Bible translations. What you know made you decide, you know, that there needed to be another Bible translation out there.

Process: Sources And Rewriting Choices

SPEAKER_00 4:42

Yeah, it's funny. I didn't think there needed to be another Bible translation out there. I looked at the Bible Gateway and there's like 50 translations that are out there already. And I argued with the Lord about this. I didn't want to do this. Five years ago, if you had told me that I was going to come out with a new version of the Bible, I would have said you were crazy. That was not on my radar. But here's what happened. I wanted to have something I could throw up on my Facebook around Easter, you know, me reading the Bible. I had gotten some good feedback from people in my Sunday school class saying they really like it when I read. And so I thought, well, put something up for Easter on my Facebook. So I went to the book of Luke, found the story of the resurrection of Christ, and thought I could probably put my own little spin on this without changing the intent or the meaning of it. So I did that. I did the narration for the book of the resurrection story of Jesus from the book of Luke. And after I got done with that, I put it up on Facebook, got some good feedback, and I thought, you know what I'm gonna do? And this is obviously not me because this is not in my nature. I thought, I'm gonna do the entire book of Luke. I'm gonna rewrite the book of Luke with my own way in a modern, kind of relatable way. So if anybody who doesn't know anything about the Bible, they can just pick this up, read it, and it'll make sense to them. So that was my goal. And so that was just huge for me. So I thought I'm gonna do the book of Luke. And so I did the book of Luke. And, you know, I was going to originally just pick up like the NIV, which has been my favorite for years, and just read it. But you can't do that if you want to sell it because, you know, they've got trademarks, copyrights on it. They spent thousands of dollars and literally years putting these things together. So I understand that. Um so I had to come out with a new version. And I thought, well, I'll just, excuse me, I'll just do something that's in public domain. So I found the King James Version and started reading it a little bit. And I thought, yeah, that's not going to work. So God bless all the people that can hear God from the King James Version, but I'm not one of them. So I found another version in the public domain called the World English Bible. And it's a good, faithful translation, interdenominational Bible scholars and experts put this together and they put it in public domain. And I read it and I thought, this is a good base. As good as it is, though, they had some phrasing that was a bit clunky for me to read, and some word choices that I thought could be clear, several of them. So I took that as a base and started working from it. And I did the book of Luke, and I got done with the book of Luke, and I really enjoyed the process, but boy, was I glad it was done. It was just a long process. And I got done with the book of Luke. And a little while later, the Holy Spirit just seemed to prompt me. You know, Acts is really the book of Luke part two, if you think about it. And so I thought, okay, I'll do the book of Acts also. So I did the book of Acts and again enjoyed the process. It was like me working on a project with my father, right? God and I working together on this. I'd be come across a passage, not be sure how to phrase it or how to say it. And so I'd become a little frustrated. And I thought, God, how do I say this? What am I supposed to say here? What does this mean? And inevitably, he would lead me to a resource or a translation or a commentary that would explain it in a different way, would help me wrap my mind around it. Then I was able to take that and phrase it in a way that was easy to understand and read. So I did that for the book of Acts. And then, as he often does, he leads you along bit by bit, right? And during that time, Dorsey, I was thinking, God, we don't need another translation of the Bible. There's plenty of them out there. There's there's no point in me doing this. And said that to him several times. And eventually I got to the point where I was hearing a voice, not audibly, but just in my spirit, saying, Why don't you let me decide what's necessary and what's not? And I thought, oh, okay. And so four years later, the whole thing got done. It was a long, challenging process. But again, it was something that I enjoyed because it was really like me working with my Heavenly Father. And there was just a sweet time of fellowship, and just his presence was very near and dear to me during that time. So I put it out there, and lo and behold, people seem to enjoy it and start buying it and listening to it. But really, the whole thing is just like a love offering, my love offering to God. And that's that's how it all came to be.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

So what I'm understanding is you just went to the one, I forget the name of the translation that you used. You just went to that translation, took what that was, and then just and then just put it into your own work, what you felt God was saying to you for your own translation.

Working With God Through Luke And Acts

SPEAKER_00 9:53

Correct. Yeah. So I took the World English Bible, and you know, I liked it, but there were some challenges to it for me. And so, you know, you had to go through it word by word, verse by verse, chapter by chapter, book by book, to kind of reword it without changing the intent or the meaning of the author and say it in a way that, you know, anyone could understand. If they have no meaning or have no understanding of Jesus or who God is, they can pick this up, you know, in the 2000s and say, oh, that makes sense to me. You know, words like mites, farthings, cubits, those are either explained in the text or I use, you know, a translation, uh word translation that would fit for today.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

Did you find any old translations or old manuscripts to look at as well? Or was it specifically for the for that Bible translation that you were using?

SPEAKER_00 10:54

Yeah, I looked at many, many different translations: NLT, RSV, NK, J V, so many translations, N-E-T, N I V. There's and I had to do that to one, say something different, and two, so I could understand it, and three, put it in a way that would be understandable for anyone who picks it up. So I felt very fortunate. Um, you know, I'm not a theologian, I'm not a Bible scholar, I don't have a seminary degree. I've taken some seminary classes, but I don't have a seminary degree. But I feel like I had a team of experts surrounding me because I had all this work that they have already done and put out there that I could draw from and use and incorporate into my work. So, you know, I was doing it by myself and with the help of the father, obviously, but I felt like I had just a team of hundreds behind me supporting me in this effort because I was able to draw from their experience and from their work.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

How has your faith learning influenced your work as a narrator and a publisher when it comes to this book and other books that you've written?

Making Ancient Terms Plain Today

SPEAKER_00 12:10

Yeah, great question. You know, I think the Bible is the greatest piece of literature ever written. And by trade, I'm a voiceover talent. So people will send me scripts to read for them. And, you know, I wanted to marry those two passions together. And so that was really the start of how I got into, you know, narrating the Bible. Again, I had never planned on narrating the whole thing, but uh God had other plans, obviously. But as I wanted to read the Bible, I wanted to make it engaging and I wanted to make it relatable. And, you know, that was part of the feedback I would get from people at church. They would say, you know, we really enjoy it when you read. And in fact, I remember one teacher, a comp, he says, you know, every time I ask for volunteers, Dan, I hope you're going to be one that reads from scripture for us. He says, I love to hear your voice when you read it. And that's obviously just of God. It's nothing of me, right? It's just something that He has gifted me with. And I can't take any credit for that. Um, but I thought, if it's a gift, then I want to be able to use it to help the body. We all have a part to play. Everyone has something unique about them and a message to share. And, you know, it took me, you know, 50 years to find mine, but eventually, eventually I did. And once you do that, um, you know, I can't help but just bolster your faith and grow, uh, especially something as intimate as the word of God. You know, I'm one of those crazy people who believe the word when it says it's alive and active and sharper than a two-edged sword. Um, I've seen it in my own life. When you get into the word and you're in it on a daily basis, like I was doing the translation, it can't help but change you. You know, it's like a small seed that gets put in you. And eventually, as you water it, as you tend it, meaning as you spend time thinking about it, praying about it, reading it, you know, God begins to do a work in you and you begin to have different desires and you begin to have different things pop up, different opportunities pop up. And it's just the work of God in you. I can't explain how it happens, it just does. And so that's why, you know, I put out different versions of the Bible where people can read it in a year if they want to. And it's not hard. You know, if you spend 10 minutes a day in the Bible, you can get through it in a year. And so, you know, I've got different versions out there where if you want to start in the month of October, you can read it through in a year, or if you want to start in the month of June, you can read it through any year. But yeah, it's just really helped me get a better sense of who God is and his love for us. And as I went through the Bible, that's one thing that became very, very clear. The whole thing is just his love story for us. It's all about him trying to redeem and fix what we have broken and restore that fellowship. And when you read the Old Testament through the lens of the New Testament, that becomes very evident. So that was one of the things that you know changed in my faith as I went through this process.

Drawing On Many Translations And Tools

SPEAKER_01 15:10

Yeah. You know, obviously, I obviously it was God working with you to help you to write this translation. And you said you said earlier that, you know, you're not a theologian, you didn't really have any Bible, you know, Bible college, you know, background, anything like that. So what if somebody were to ask you, you know, what qualifications did you think yourself had to write this, what would you what would you say to them?

SPEAKER_00 15:42

Yeah, it's kind of funny. I feel like, you know, one of the 12 apostles, right? They were ordinary guys, fishermen. And yet God used them and changed the world through them. Now, I'm not going to be so bold to say God's going to change the world through me, but uh, he has a history of using the common and the ordinary. He didn't go, Jesus didn't go to the religious elite of the time. He didn't go to those that were uh the leaders religiously. He went to the common, everyday man. And so I was nervous about doing this, honestly, Dorsey, because of those very reasons. Um but yet through it, God seemed to be telling me, it's not about you. It's about me. It's about me working through you. And you've got plenty of resources to help you. And he showed me those, right? The different translations that are out there and the different commentaries that are out there and the Bible dictionaries that are out there. So again, I'm just one guy, but I felt like I had a team of experts supporting me in this journey. And I was able to draw from their experience and then, you know, let the Holy Spirit work through me to come up with a new way of saying the same thing, but just in a way that's might be more relatable or easier to understand. And there's one illustration I like to use. I can say Mike bought a red car. That's very simple, very easy to understand, very concise. I can also say Mike decided to purchase a vehicle. He decided to purchase a car. The color choice Mike made was red for his new vehicle. You're saying the same thing, but one's just a lot more concise and conveying the same information. And that was really my goal as I did this project. How can I say it in a concise, easy to understand way for people to get the message without changing the intent of what the author is trying to communicate?

SPEAKER_01 17:39

Right. Do you happen to have the Bible translation that you wrote in front of you?

SPEAKER_00 17:46

I can get it in front of me. One second here. Happen to have a computer screen right here. Let me see. Yes, I do.

SPEAKER_01 17:58

Would you mind reading Romans 828 from that translation? I'm curious to see how that's different than what the other versions that I've heard.

Faith, Voice Work, And Scripture’s Impact

SPEAKER_00 18:09

Yeah, let me open up Romans. That's a different file here. So bear with me as I find Romans. All right. And all 16 chapters. I love Romans 8.28. It is always an encouragement, right? When something goes wrong, you think, Lord, what are you doing with this? And Romans 8.28 is just a reminder. God is sovereign and he can do anything with even the messes that we happen to find ourselves in. All right. Romans 8.28 from the EUR version. We know all things work together for the good of those who love God, those who are called according to his purpose.

SPEAKER_01 18:57

How do you think we could take or make the Bible accessible to everyone?

SPEAKER_00 19:05

That's a wonderful question. I think it needs to be accessible to everyone because it has life-changing transformational properties within it. One of the things that I've been doing is just getting the word out, right? I mean, so many people have been so gracious to talk about the word of God with me and share their love of the word of God with me. You, for example, inviting me on this podcast, allowing me just to share my passion for God's word. And I want to put it out there just in many different ways as I can, which is why I came out with literally 13 different versions of walking through the Bible in a year. So one of the things I went out there and found, Dorsey, was that when I wanted to do a Bible reading, you know, God would inspire me in the month of April. Well, I'd look at the plans and it was either start in January and follow through, or just have a book that would say, okay, this is day one, this is day two, this is day three. Well, that's great until I get to like day 173 and I don't know where I'm really supposed to be if I happen to get off track. So I came up with a version of walking through the Bible of the year through each month. So if it's November, you can look at November 3rd and see what you're supposed to read that day, no matter what month you start with. So if you want to start April 1st, you can start April 1st. You want to start, you know, July 1st, you can start July 1st. So I make it very easy for people to get through the word. Um and then I have the chronological version of the Bible, which if they want to read it from oldest to newest, they can do it that way. Um and then the regular version of the Bible, where, you know, it's just Genesis through Revelation, all 66 books in order as they have historically been. And I think just offering, you know, those different formats, those different versions, makes it easier for people. Now, something that was unintentional, but obviously God had planned, was offering the individual books of the Bible as well. So if somebody is just thinking about the Bible or they want to do a deep dive on a specific book and they only want to study the book of Romans, well, I've got the book of Romans that they can get by itself and just listen to it or read through it and only have to go through one book instead of having if somebody just wants to do a study on like the book of Romans, I have that available for them as just the book of Romans. They can purchase or read just that portion of the scripture. They don't have to have the entire Bible. Um, and again, that wasn't something that I intended. It's just as I was working through it, a God kind of led me to do it that way. And really what I found is that that's a lot of the purchases that happen from Audible, just people buying the individual books. And then sometimes they'll do that and think, okay, this guy is worth listening to more on. So they'll buy another book or buy the, you know, the entire New Testament or the Old Testament or just the Pentateuch, or just listen to the Gospels, for example. So yeah, there's there's multiple ways that people can engage with the word. I've got it out there. Just trying to make it as accessible and easy to use as as possible. So however they want to consume it, I probably have a version for them.

Qualifications, Clarity, And Concision

SPEAKER_01 22:11

Yeah. Did you ever think about contacting UV or contacting Bible Gateway to try to get it on there as well?

SPEAKER_00 22:21

That might be something in the future. Um, right now I've just been out talking about my version, seeing what God does with it. But yeah, I mean, if they were interested in carrying my version, I'd certainly be more than open to. Seen what God wants to do through that avenue as well.

SPEAKER_01 22:37

And we all know, you know, there are gonna be critics out there and people that, you know, don't like certain things. Sure. And how do you respond to critics who might say that, you know, not only your version, but other versions, you know, might be, you know, watering down the Bible or losing the nuance and complexity of the original text.

SPEAKER_00 23:03

Yeah, no matter what you do, there's going to be critics, right? Not everybody likes the same thing, which I think is wonderful. You know, Baskin Robbins carries more than one flavor of ice cream for a reason. So this is just another flavor, right? And if they want to choose Rocky Road, they can choose Rocky Road. If they want mint chocolate chip, they can choose mint chocolate chip. You know, I'm not saying this is the only one true version. This is just another avenue for people to explore. And, you know, different versions are going to speak to different people. I mentioned earlier, King James version, you know, I'll I'll read it once in a while for reference, but it doesn't really speak to me the way a different version will. So if they don't like it, okay, move on to another version. You know, I'm not going to take it personally. I know God is using this version. I've had uh testimonies from people who say how it's blessed their life and helped them get back into the word. And so I'm thankful for what he's doing through it. And, you know, if they're not blessed by it and they're blessed by another version, great. Get into that version. I I it doesn't matter to me what version of the Bible you're reading. I just want to make sure that you're in the Bible and reading it and allowing God to speak to you through it. So if they don't like it, it's okay with me.

SPEAKER_01 24:22

What's the most gambling part of the Bible to translate? And how did you book that into a version?

SPEAKER_00 24:30

You know, one of the most challenging things, Dorsey, is just the size of it, right? It's uh it's a huge book, 750,000 words in total, and just breaking it up piece by piece was helpful to me. Um so doing that. But specifically, you know, I remember struggling with Corinthians for some reason. I thought first and second Corinthians was a challenge. You know, I I wish Paul would have had an editor. It would make things easier for me. But, you know, he wrote in a specific way, and I think there's a reason for that because it forces you to dig deeper to understand what he is saying. Um, but yeah, I remember going through Corinthians thinking, wow, this is a challenge. And it wasn't one that I had expected, you know. Everyone knows 1 Corinthians 13 talks about love. Well, that's that's one portion, but there's a lot more going on in Corinthians than just that.

SPEAKER_01 25:24

How do you bounce things through to the original method while using modern language?

Reading Romans 8:28 Aloud

SPEAKER_00 25:32

Yeah, that was one of the concerns that I had because I wanted to make sure that I wasn't going to do anything to dilute the word of God or dumb it down, so to speak. So I what I wanted to do is make sure that anything I wrote was going to line up with what's historically out there. And, you know, God bless all the people that have worked on other translations because they were a huge help to me. So I was able to come up with something, right, and writing it in a way that I thought was understandable, easy to understand and digest. And then I can validate what I've got by looking at, you know, five or six other different historical translations that are out there, be it NIV, NLT, RSV, whatever, and make sure that we're all kind of saying the same thing, but yet in a different way. So I would say, you know, having those other translations available to me was a was a huge help.

SPEAKER_01 26:28

Now you mentioned Audible. Is Audible the only way to get your Clink Lincoln or also available on Amazon?

Accessibility: Plans, Formats, And Singles

SPEAKER_00 26:39

It is available on Amazon. Yeah, Amazon's available for the ebooks, and I've got some softbound books and a couple of hardbound books as well that they're available on Amazon. Um but my goal was to do the audio version, right? Because I'm a voiceover talent. So in order to do the audio version, you have to have a print version or an online version for people. So I had to put the online version out there in order to get the audible or the audio version out there. So yeah, it's available on Amazon and ebook or hardback or paperback or the audio version on Audible.

SPEAKER_01 27:17

So if we get the audio version, we'll hear Dan Paul's voice the whole way through the Bible?

SPEAKER_00 27:23

All the way through.

SPEAKER_01 27:25

All the way through.

SPEAKER_00 27:26

From Genesis to Revelation, it's all me. It's funny because I would think I would get tired of listening to myself after a while. But Audible gives stats. And I think it was the month of May I looked, and they said people had spent over 640 hours listening to you know my version of the Bible, which is just astounding to me. You know, the thought of speaking for 640 hours into people's lives, and they're doing it willingly. Nobody's forcing them to do it. It's just uh just a gift of God to me.

SPEAKER_01 28:03

What are, you know, extend well, not extend it because you can't extend the Bible translation. What's next for you in your future?

SPEAKER_00 28:13

Yeah, so I really want to get the word out about the version of the Bible that I've got out there now. And so that's that's why I'm talking to uh people like you who are interested in the word of God and things of God and promoting that. So that's what's on the immediate horizon. In the background, I've got a little something cooking. God has been stirring my heart about generation Gen Z. I have a son who's Gen Z, and I see some of the things that he struggles through, that generation struggles through. And I thought I'd like to be able to speak to them. Uh so I've got devotional coming out, um, a father's words to Gen Z, or Dad's Words to Gen Z, walking through the Bible in a year, uh where it just has little anecdotes and a devotional for each day based on certain scripture, where I just kind of talk about my life, how I've seen God work, and just give them encouragement. Uh, let them know that God is sovereign in their lives, let them know that God loves them, let them know that God has a plan and a purpose for them, let them know that God is wanting to use them in his kingdom to help build it. And just let them know that they have value and that they have worth. So that's going to be coming out at some point. I've got it mostly written. What I need to do now is just kind of go back, edit it, and then narrate it as well. So it's 365 devotionals, so it's taken me a little bit of time. But hopefully by the end of the year, that's the goal, be able to have that out there. So it dads words to Gen Z.

SPEAKER_01 29:38

Okay. Well, I'll have the show notes and everything. I'll have the link to the show notes. I'll have the link to the audio bible and to the Amazon on my show notes so that people can check you out. And do you have a website or anything?

Platforms, Critics, And Purpose

SPEAKER_00 29:58

I have a website, party on me voices.com. It's just really one that I've got for our voiceover work. So when people want to hear our voices, what it sounds like, they can listen there. But really, most of my stuff is on Audible. I have a page on Audible where everything that I've narrated is listed. So that's usually where I refer people.

SPEAKER_01 30:18

Awesome. Well, thank you, Dan, so much for coming on the show today. We greatly appreciate having you.

SPEAKER_00 30:26

It's been my pleasure. Thanks so much. Thanks for your heart and thanks for your ministry and just your passion for the Word of God. I appreciate it. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 30:33

Absolutely. Well, guys and girls, thank you so much for coming on, for listening again today. Please go and check out Dan's information. I'll have it again in the show notes. And please go and follow Odury Audio Group on Spotify and Upper Podcasts. Please share, review, and reach out at info at oduriaudiogroup.org. And please go and check out my website at www.dorcyrosho.com to hear past and future episodes. Until next time. God bless. Bye bye.