Harmony of the Gospel (Conservative Version) narrative form - Introduction for audio computer Read aloud

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The narrative form of the Harmony of the Gospel Conservative Version on Conservapedia is a dedicated audio adaptation of the redacted text of the same encyclopedic feature. The peculiarities of a computerized mechanical audio reading needs to be adapted with the use of unusual phonetic spellings on the displayed print page, along with some very peculiar-looking punctuation and omissions. This is so that the mechanical limitations of the audio computer "Read aloud" function reads it more naturally, as a kind of "radio narrative". This is intended as a dedicated audio form, primarily for people with bad vision or who are blind, or are simply unable to look at a computer screen or read the printed page for very long. But in any case, people who simply listen to the Bible being read often get unexpected insights when they can hear it read. This is a benefit. A parallel column displaying the normal printed text is provided for comparison and verification, as a "translation" in plain language of the audio adaptation of the narrative form of this encyclopedic redaction of the New Testament

Chapter headings

Chapter headings are not properly a part of the narrative text, so they are not included in the text adapted here for a computer audio narrative of the page readings. Each page of the normal printed form of the text of this encyclopedic Harmony of the Gospel is seven chapters. Each of these seven-chapter pages is presented in the narrative form of this feature as a continuous reading for listening instead, without any mention of the chapter headings. The chapters of each page being read are mentioned in the heading of the page. A notation at the top of each audio-adapted page tells the listener how long the uninterrupted narration will be.

Text additions

Some minor additions to the text of the standard print form of this Harmony of the Gospel Conservative Version have been made, so that the reading is more understandable and easier to follow. For example, instead of abruptly beginning the reading of some of the epistles or some of the historical documents suddenly without any warning, an introductory statement is used, such as, "Psalm 80", and, "Let us begin". In some places it's enough to begin the reading of it with the simple word, "Now", or the phrase, "It says", followed by the reading. This is so the listener will know what's happening and be able to follow the narrative. In the same way, to make clear that the epistle or document reading is finished, a statement saying so in some form is added before going on with the narrative so the listener will know that the words that follow are not part of the quoted text, such as ending the text of a passage from the Torah with the statement, "This is the law of Moses", and, "These are the words of Isaiah", or "End of the First Book".

Some instances of the information found in the marginal notes of the longer form of this Harmony of the Gospel are very briefly condensed and essentially summarized and inserted for the benefit of the listener, sometimes consisting of a single word as is done in a Dynamic equivalence version of a Biblical text in English. For example, a statement is added in the text as a summary of the information from the marginal notes of the longer form, such as the statement inserted in the text of Chapter Two of this Harmony of the Gospel Conservative Version immediately after the quotations from the law of Moses about the vowing of persons to the service of God as dedicated whole living offerings set apart as holy to the Lord. It explains why a daughter, vowed by her parents as a consecrated virgin to "know not a man", should be pledged to become a wife to a man. It says,

"And Mary, being vowed to the Lord by her parents when she was a child, and consecrated to him by them as a perpetual virgin to not know a man, a vow she had not made, which her husband therefore could not make void; when the angel told her she would conceive in her womb and bear a son; for this reason she said, 'How can this be?' "

This summarizes the reading from the law of Moses that had just been given in the text. The reasoning behind this particular summarized reading is dealt with in detail in the marginal notes of the longer form of the Harmony of the Gospel Conservative Version. This summarization of the marginal material is followed by a repeat of the conversation with the angel Gabriel, to pick up where the narrative left off with the quotation of texts from the Torah, and going on from there. Most questions raised by parts of the New Testament texts that are controversial are tackled by the marginal notes of the longer form, but may be inserted as an aide to the listener for fuller understanding. The sighted reader listening to the audio narrative while following the normal print display in the parallel column may be inconvenienced or somewhat confused by hearing these expansions of the meaning of the text intended for better understanding. When this happens the sighted listener can pause the audio reading as needed for comparison, and then resume or continue with the reading. At the bottom of each page of this narrative form is a link to the longer form of this Harmony of the Gospel, so the listener can access the marginal notes for some explanation of why the text says what it does, as a form of justification for the expanded reading.

Proclamation

According to several sources, and most commentaries on the Bible, the word "Gospel" is from the Greek word "evangelion", literally, "good message". Several modern Bible translations use the term "good news" in place of the word "gospel". The redacted text of this Harmony of the Gospel Conservative Version based on the World English Bible version (the W.E.B. or simply WEB) also reads "gospel" as "good news". The Gospel is much more than that. Since "gospel" also means "proclamation", and the encyclopedic purpose of this Harmony of the Gospel is to be informative and increase understanding of the Christian New Testament, in this audio reading adaptation, the word "proclamation" is used as much as possible in place of "good news". For example, "The beginning of the proclamation of Jesus Christ, the Son of God", as the first verse from Mark chapter one.

Adapting large paragraphs

In some places of the reading of the text of this Harmony of the Gospel Conservative Version, the computer sometimes skips reading whole sections of large continuous paragraphs. For this audio narrative adaptation these paragraphs have been broken up into smaller segments on the page, or an introductory statement in the page display of the copy is separated by a line of spacing, to compensate for this kind of mechanical failure to process the whole of the page copy. This is in order for the computer to read all of the text it otherwise mechanically fails to read in the normal printed form, without any such omissions, reading it whole and entire, like the Genealogies, and the more extensive sections of the historical narrative from Josephus.

Punctuation

Visual punctuation of the page copy has been adapted for the sake of the audio narrative so that the computer reading of the narrative is smoother and more natural to listen to. These odd-looking punctuations, omissions, additions and insertions of punctuation marks are not errors that need to be corrected by a proof reader. They have been carefully checked for audio accuracy. What results is an audio narrative rendered according to a kind of vocal "manual of style" in speech, proper to the narration form of the text, but eccentric or completely improper on the displayed printed page.

Mechanical computer reading sometimes abruptly pauses or falters over some of the standard punctuation of regular printed text, and sometimes even when no punctuation is encountered. In other cases, some odd pauses in the mechanical computer reading unexpectedly occur when it encounters some particular word or phrase. There seems to be no consistent pattern to this occurrence. In some instances of attempting to edit a persistently repeated pausing, in repeated audio re-readings of a certain sentence or phrase in review, for the purpose of determining, by trial and error, an appropriate audio adaptation of spelling or punctuation for the sake of normal verbal expression, a grouping of the involved construction of words, by removing the spaces between them, has finally proved to be the only means of correcting this defect of abruptly pausing in the reading in some of the more particularly troublesome places in the text. Many commas have been removed from the display of the normal print copy, simply because they produce unnatural broken pauses in an audio computer reading. But some commas or other useful punctuation marks have necessarily been added, such as quotation marks, semicolons, colons, even periods in the middle of a long sentence, to provide varying lengths of a useful verbal pause where necessary, some only very slight, to avoid an unintended mechanically hurried reading of a sentence without the expected ordinary moments of minor pause of thought, in a grouping of words expressing a single idea or subject reference, so that the computer reading aloud of the page makes more sense to the listener and can be more easily processed in hearing it read.

A period or colon is sometimes inserted into the adapted print copy of the text in order to force a necessary pause in the reading, where a slight pause for natural vocal emphasis is appropriate and natural, where the computer fails to provide for it. Some periods have been removed, because the computer actually reads them as the word "dot", yes, "dot", or the period mark has been repositioned to avoid its being verbally read as a dot.

Question marks can be variably inflected by the human reader as a rising tone of query, or as representing a falling tone of challenge or certainty at the end of a sentence posing a question, depending on the context. For this reason, here in this narrative form question marks sometimes appear on the page display following a quotation mark instead of immediately preceding it, as a quotation-mark-and-question-mark together in that order, the question mark being positioned after a quotation mark to cause a normal rising tone of query, or without any question mark at all but a period instead in order to cause a normal tone of finality in the sentence of a question, so that the peculiar placement of the question mark on the printed page or its omission is not an error but an accommodation to the limitations of mechanical computer reading, in order to cause a proper inflection of tone. Where a human reader might vocally emphasize a word or particular syllable of a word, the audio computer reading sometimes fails to entirely satisfy, and no amount of inventive trial and error adaptive phonetic spelling attempted here for this feature produced it. With this in mind, understand that all quotation marks have been removed from the copy of the normal print text set aside here for adaptation, as unnecessary for indicating to the reader a vocal narration, but when used they sometimes appear at the end of a sentence in conjunction with the question mark. In some instances, as already mentioned the question mark itself has been replaced by a period, in order to give the proper inflection of tone in the audio reading. A period at the end of a question in this audio adapted narrative form isn't a typo. Where the audio adapted text lacks any punctuation at all at the end of a sentence, leaving the end of it with an unfinished empty space, it is not due to a typo omission or careless mistake. Also there are instances in the audio adapted text where a period and space is followed by a word spelled with a lower case first letter instead of the expected capital letter: this too is not a typographical error but a necessary adaptation for the audio reading.

Quotation marks appearing in the audio adapted text of the narrative form of this Harmony of the Gospel Conservative Version are not in fact used here as normal quotation marks, but only for the purpose of vocal inflection. Moreover, where the quotation mark appears in the adapted text it never appears on the page of the audio adaptation as indicating a quotation in any way, but as a prompt or a cue-mark or signal to the automated computer reading function to render the intended inflection. When the quotation mark is used to bracket what a person in the narrative said as a vocal inflective emphasis, it sometimes appears to the sighted reader as normal punctuation indicating a normal verbal statement in the text of what someone said. This is purely coincidental and unintentional. The enclosing quotation marks in the adapted text cause a slight audio verbal emphasis of what was said as being significant, and sometimes simply for the sake of a smoother slight pause before and after a phrase, in place of commas which are too frequently read as abrupt pauses.

Sometimes the visual use of quotation marks bracketing important terms of religious doctrinal substance for the sake of proper inflection unfortunately looks to the sighted reader like an expression of doubt, as when the expressions Son of God and Kingdom of God and the Name of Jesus appear here in the text bracketed with quotation marks. In normal writings by atheists and liberals who doubt the veracity of Christian teachings, quotation marks are sometimes used by them to signal to their readers profound doubt or contempt or sarcasm for what they insist are the "alleged" and "so-called" facts of the Gospel. But in this audio adapted text that is not the intent of using quotation marks, and bracketing sacred facts with quotation marks is not intended as a blasphemous ridicule of the claims of Christianity to the truths we assert with such assured confidence. Auditing or listening to the adapted text will demonstrate to the listener that quotation marks, bracketing important elements of the Christian Message, are used to cause an inflective tone of emphasis in the audio narrative, to express confidence, not doubt, not disbelief, and certainly not irreverently ironic sarcasm of sneering ridicule.

When vocal inflection of tone is wrong as read by the computer, it has been corrected here by using hyphens with phonetic spellings. For example, in the following sentence, the computer audio reading drops the tone at the end of the following sentence, at the word "me":

They asked this because it is written, Moses said, The LORD your God will raise up to you a Prophet from among you of your brethren like me.

The more natural inflection with a proper slight vocal emphasis on "me" is provided by adapting the spelling and punctuation for audio computer reading as follows:

They asked this because it is written, Moses said, The LORD your God will raise up to you a Prophet from among you of your brethren "like-Mee".

In the example of the above sentence, the computer audio reading doesn't drop the tone at the end of the sentence at the word "Mee". And here is another example, without using the hyphen:

Normal spelling

The LORD said to me, They have well said that which they have spoken. I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren like you.

Adapted spelling

The LORD said to me, They have well said that which they have spoken. I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren "like Hew".

Words like "my" and "you" and the personal pronoun "I" are almost always verbally clipped short by the computer reader. This necessitated developing phonetic spellings that broadened the sounds of these words as needed.

"my" is rendered as "Mighe".

"you" is rendered as "yew" and in combination with another word as "Hew".

"I" is rendered as either "Aye", or as "Ighe".

"I AM" is rendered "Aye-am", and "Aye-yam", and "Ighe-am"

And there are others.

Dashes

The punctuation of "dashes" in the printed text, normally intended to indicate a pause for emphasis, is totally ignored by the computer reading as if they don't exist, thus entirely omitting a necessary pause where needed and even hurrying faster through the dash instead as if there is not even a space between the words separated by the dash, sometimes even when the dash is disconnected or isolated in the sentence by a space before and after it. For this reason a comma or a semi-colon or colon, or even a period, is used in place of the dash in the regular text, to produce the same intended audio narrative effect.

Inverted phrases

In some cases, phrases or single words of the normal print text have been rearranged from the end of a sentence to its beginning or its middle, either because the structure of the sentence as it is, is hard to follow in the narrative, or because the mechanical reading of the computer breaks up the sentence of the normal text into two or more parts, which it then reads as separate sentences, or as independent dangling phrases, that don't make much sense as read aloud by the computer. The rearrangement of the existing sentence structure doesn't change the meaning. It's just a necessary adaptation to get around the limitations of mechanical computer reading, which simply makes more sense of the text of the narrative when read that way. The sighted reader following the audio narrative while reading the normal text print display can pause the audio reading to check and compare the adapted narrative form.

Weird mispronunciations

Mechanical computer reading also weirdly mispronounces some proper names of people and even some ordinary words, such as s o w, "to sow", in sowing seed, as if it is the word s o w with the sound of "ow" instead, pronouncing it as the word for a female pig or bear, "a sow".

One sows and another reaps. One "sews" and another reaps.

For example, the name Onesimus is read by the computer as "One sime us". For this reason phonetic spellings have been substituted when necessary on the visual display of the adaptive page for the sake of proper pronunciation by the Read aloud and Read out loud audio functions of the computer. In the particular case of the computer misreading the name of Onesimus the visual spelling of his name is rendered "O-nessymus". Charism is mechanically read wrongly with a soft "c h" by the computer as if it's the name of a belief in burning things until they are completely charred called "char-ism", when it should be pronounced with the hard form of "c h" as "care-ism". The name of Decebalus in text drawn from Suetonius in this Harmony is rendered phonetically on the page as "Desseb Al us". Spaces are used in this instance instead of hyphens. A similar technique of phonetic adaptation is made for other names of people and places, so the computer audio reading will say it right. Some purists will object to the rendering of Bible names and places in their popular forms as normally heard and used by the common person instead of according to their academically proper reading according to the original languages in Hebrew, Aramaic, Egyptian and Greek. While this encyclopedic feature is intended to be educational, it is not intended to confuse the ordinary reader unfamiliar with the linguistically proper pronunciation of them. This will seem to some to be a guilty perpetuation of an error of ignorant convention. The Message of the Gospel is of more paramount importance, and such a purist audio reading would confront the ordinary listener with a serious distraction having nothing to do with the fundamental Gospel Message that Jesus Christ is Savior and Lord, and only through Him can anyone have the totally free gift of Eternal Life in God, which cannot be earned by anything we do or have done, and will continue to have only by faithfully doing what He Says with works that are pleasing to Him and the Father and the Holy Spirit that will stand the test of fire that will test every man's work in the Last Judgment.

American usage is the standard here instead of the European forms. For example the word "Emmaus" is pronounced either as "Em-may-us" or as "Em-mouse": the first form is here preferred and used as the adapted phonetic form for the narrative rendering of the text. Occasionally the reader and listener will disagree with the audio adapted forms used in this Harmony of the Gospel Conservative Version narrative form. They may be right. Popular usage is not always correct but it is the more accepted form for common understanding of the meaning. The more serious student of the Bible will sooner or later encounter the accurate pronunciation of ancient biblical forms, and is strongly encouraged to adopt them.

Useless dictionary phonetic forms

Substituting the standard forms of dictionary phonetic spellings of these words with the phonetic characters of their dictionary definitions just doesn't work. At this time commonly available audio computer Read aloud functions are not currently adapted for reading dictionary phonetical spellings with special phonetic characters, and they are not phonetically read right by the computer according to the sounds they are intended to represent. The same goes for any computer Read aloud of any words spelled with the International Phonetic Alphabet. It doesn't work.

One example is the name of the village of Capernaum.

(/kəˈpɜːrniəm/ kə-PUR-nee-əm; Hebrew: כְּפַר נַחוּם‬, Kfar Naḥūm; Arabic: كفر ناحوم, meaning "Nahum's village" in Hebrew).

The audio reading of the phonetic spelling totally bypasses in silence the Hebrew and Arabic spellings and misreads the Anglicized spelling of the Hebrew sound "Kfar" as "Kay far", and in reading aloud the IPA rendering kəˈpɜːrniəm it does not say "Caw purr", it says "kay peer nayum", but the common vocal rendering in most printed dictionary and Bible dictionary texts is "Ca per′ nay um". But even this common dictionary phonetic spelling "Ca per′ nay um" is mispronounced by the Read aloud function and the "c a" is not rendered "Caw" or "Cah" but is spelled out instead, and as a result, here in this audio adaptation of Harmony of the Gospel Conservative Version narrative form, Capernaum had to be rendered "Cap Ernay-um", to correspond to the common way it is said when it's "red" aloud by the ordinary American Bible reader.

Vocal tense

The computer often cannot distinguish the past and present tenses of some words. Sometimes it doesn't use the right inflexion or accentuation of syllables of words in the context of the reading. For example, the past tense of "read", r e a d, is sometimes given by the computer as the verb to read something as if reading right now, "to read it", but for the narrative form on the page the intended past tense of the word needs to be phonetically corrected to r e d, "red", within the context of the text, "I have red this". On the page it doesn't look right, but in the audio computer reading these odd spellings sound right. The word "live" is sometimes read as in "alive", when it should be pronounced "liv", l i v, without the misleading cue of the silent 'e' on the end of the word, which the machine mindlessly interprets as a direction to pronounce the alphabetic character, ' i ', "eye", as a long "vowl", vowel, instead of the proper short "vowl", vowel, according to the context of the verbal tense of the setting within the sentence. The word "untie" is O.K., but the computer reads "untying" as "un-tee-ing". And the computer sometimes pronounces "present" with the accent on the second syllable as presenting something, to "pree Zent" it, and sometimes reads it with the accent on the first syllable of "present", as "Preznt" in attendance. The normal text of the Harmony of the Gospel Conservative Version has been carefully audited to determine where phonetic adaptations are needed in the narrative form.

The computer forms of pronunciation can also change between episodes of reading the words of the same ordinary text, as when you log off and go away and come back and log on for a second reading of it again and the uncommon words are sometimes read differently from before, sometimes changing their meanings, which can be confusing for the listener who can't read print, especially for students who study class-assigned books and materials with the aid of audio readings. For this reason phonetic spellings are used in this narrative form of Harmony of the Gospel in order to produce the right pronunciation in the computer narrative of the text each time. To accommodate the sighted reader of this narrative form of Harmony of the Gospel Conservative Version, all necessary phonetic spellings on the page are bracketed by quotation marks, to show the sighted reader that they are not misspelling accidents or "typos" overlooked by tired proof readers.

There are some inconclusive indications that the computer text-reading function has a rudimentary Artificial intelligence that may perhaps gradually correct or revise words in its stored vocabulary according to the rules of syntax from repeated usage, and might actually properly render words in context earlier misread or "mis-red" by it out of context. There are places in the computerized reading of the normal print display of the text that seem never to improve, and other places that seem over time with multiple readings to have eventually undergone some programming correction for grammatically improved audio reading, and in such a case the improvement may be the work of a programmer and not due to the current programming in the machine. This is illustrated by the fact that in some cases in the normal printed text, the adaptation, A sower went forth to "so", formerly necessarily adapted from the erroneous sound of the word s o w with the sound of "ow" for a female pig, "A sower went forth to sow", is now later apparently changed and is sometimes properly pronounced by the Read aloud function, when earlier it was not. The curious reader can check if changes are made in the capacity of the Read aloud function for proper audio reading of the text by using the Read aloud function on the normal print text in the right-hand parallel column, beside the left-hand column with the text of the adapted narrative form of this Harmony of the Gospel Conservative Version narrative form. The fact that the reader might see no current justification for the adaptive phonetic spellings and punctuation in the narrative form is no evidence that such a phonetic adaptation was not originally deemed necessary by the way the Read aloud function read or "red" the text when it was first developed here. The reader can establish any relevant apparent changes and currently necessary or unnecessary phonetic rendering of any of the exhibited phonetically adapted forms of the words from the normal text, by playing the Read aloud function over the parallel right-hand column of the normal print text to see how it is currently read aloud by the machine.

An illustration

As an illustration, turn on the Read aloud function on your computer or device, and listen to this page. The term "Read aloud function" can be phonetically adapted as "Reed aloud function", which looks wrong but reads right. Vocally, context is everything when reading out loud. Compare the reading of the text here below of the genealogy from Chapter Five of Harmony of the Gospel (Conservative Version) shorter form and the phonetic adaptation of the same text from the Harmony of the Gospel Conservative Version narrative form. In the first part of this example the computer's reading omits a large section of the block of text after the fact that Joseph died, skipping everything in the genealogy up to the words "the son of Salmon, the son of Nahshon, the son of Amminadab". Then it reads it from that point in the text all the way to the words at the end, "Adam, the son of God", and then it repeats everything it has already read, starting again from the same place with "the son of Salmon, the son of Nahshon, the son of Amminadab", down to the end again with "Adam, the son of God", and still omits all the generations that came before the son of Salmon. For the audio narrative adaptation of this text, this defect in the mechanical computer reading of the regular existing text of this Harmony of the Gospel is eliminated with the dividing up of the paragraph into smaller segments on the page. The computer then reads the whole genealogy without omission, with some brief pauses in the sequence. The bizarre audio mispronunciations of the normal standard spellings of some of the names of the genealogy are also corrected by the adapted phonetic spellings of the narrative form.

Listen to this illustrative example of the genealogy, as the first part of this illustration:

Harmony of the Gospel Shorter Form, the legal genealogy of Joseph the husband of Mary

Now Joseph, the husband of Mary, from whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ, died. And Jesus himself, who was born of the offspring of David according to the flesh, when he began, was about thirty years old, being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Heli, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph, the son of Mattathias, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Esli, the son of Naggai, the son of Maath, the son of Mattathias, the son of Semein, the son of Joseph, the son of Judah, the son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri, the son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmodam, the son of Er, the son of Jose, the son of Eliezer, the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonan, the son of Eliakim, the son of Melea, the son of Menan, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David, the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Salmon, the son of Nahshon, the son of Amminadab, the son of Aram, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah, the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber, the son of Shelah, the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Cainan, the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.

Here is the same illustrative example, adapted, as the second part of this illustration:

Harmony of the Gospel Narrative Form, the legal genealogy of Joseph the husband of Mary

Now Joseph, the husband of Mary from whom was born Jesus who is called Christ. Died.

And Jesus himself who was born of the offspring of David according to the flesh, when he began was about thirty years old, being the son as was supposed of Joseph, the son of "Heeligh", the son of "Matt that", the son of Levi, the son of "Mel-kye", the son of "Jan Eye".

the son of Joseph, the son of "Matt-athigh-us", the son of Amos, the son of "Nay-hum", the son of "Ess-lie", the son of "Nag-gai", the son of "Ma Hath".

the son of "Matt-athigh-us", the son of "Semmy-in", the son of Joseph, the son of Judah, the son of "Jo-annan", the son of "Reesa", the son of "Zerrubba-bell".

the son of "She-al-tiel", the son of "Nair-rye", the son of "Mel-kye", the son of "Ad Die", the son of "Co-sam", the son of "Elmo-dam", the son of "Erh".

the son of "Joes-ehh", the son of "A-lee-ayzer", the son of Jorim, the son of "Matt That", the son of Levi, the son of Simeon, the son of Judah.

the son of Joseph, the son of "Jo-nan", the son of "A-lee-aykim", the son of "Mellee-ah", the son of Menan, the son of "Matt-atha", the son of Nathan.

the son of David, the son of Jesse, the son of "O-bed", the son of Boaz, the son of "Sallmon", the son of Nahshon, the son of "Am-min-adab".

the son of Aram, the son of "Hezzron", the son of "Pairezz", the son of Judah, the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham.

the son of Terah, the son of "Nay-hore", the son of "Sair-ugh", the son of "Ree-you", the son of "Pel-egg", the son of "E-ber", the son of "She-lah".

the son of "Kigh-nan", the son of "Arh Faxad", the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch.

the son of Jared, the son of "Ma Halla-leel", the son of "Kigh-nan", the son of "Enos", the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.

You can hear the difference.

Here is an example of using quotation marks and hyphens to generate the proper inflection of tone in the conversation of Nicodemus and Jesus on being born again:

The text of the normal print display:

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to him by night, and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a Teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him.
Jesus answered him, Most certainly I tell you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see God's Kingdom.
Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?
Jesus answered, Most certainly I tell you, unless one is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter into God's Kingdom. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, You must be born anew. The wind blows where it wants to, and you hear its sound, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.
Nicodemus answered him, How can these things be?
Jesus answered him, You are the Teacher of Israel, and do not understand these things? Most certainly I tell you, We speak that which We know, and testify of that which We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

Here is the same text of the phonetically adapted text:

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to him by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a Teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that "you-doo", unless God is with him.
Jesus answered him, Most certainly I tell you, unless one is "born-anew", he cannot see "God’s-Kingdom".
Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born”?
Jesus answered, Most certainly I tell you, unless one is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter into "God’s-Kingdom". That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you You must be "born-anew". The wind blows where it wants to, and you hear its sound, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.
Nicodemus answered him, How can "these things-Beegh"?
Jesus answered him, You are the Teacher of Israel, and do not "under stand-these-things"? Most certainly I tell you, We speak that which We know, and testify of that which We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

Listening times

At the top of each page of seven-chapters, just before the reading of the text, is a note telling the total reading time of the whole page. Except for the first page, Chapters 1-7, each page is over two hours listening time.

The Read aloud function

The Read aloud function tool-bar includes back-up, pause, and skip-forward, and also a choice of audio reading voice. While the Read aloud function is on, and reading, the cursor can be placed anywhere on the page being read, "red", and clicked, to jump the reading immediately to that place where the cursor was positioned in the text to continue the reading from that point. It can be placed anywhere back of where the text is being read, "red", and clicked, to jump the reader there to begin reading immediately from that point.

If you are unfamiliar with the Read out loud or Read aloud function of your device, you can access a tutorial online by doing a search for "How to use the Read aloud function". (Try simultaneous Ctrl + Shift + G or Ctrl + Shift + F.)

The Read aloud function used here for development of this audio adaptation is exclusively from Ctrl + Shift + G and according to the selected baritone voice called "David". The other voices offered may not always correspond exactly to the "David" voice in their rendered vocal inflection or tone of this audio adaptation of the narrative form of this Harmony of the Gospel Conservative Version.