That anyone from the Levant, no matter her level of education or religious background, can understand the Word of God and reproduce new DBS groups.

That includes you.

If you aren’t fluent in Arabic we hope this site will help you easily find different lessons and enable you to start sustainable and reproducible groups or share a relevant lesson with someone you know from the Levant.

People from Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Palestine should be able to easily understand this project because their spoken dialects are similar. Also because the Levantine Spoken Arabic dialects are popular in TV shows they can also be understood in the broader region by many people.

Here is some feedback from Arab pastors about this project:

“It’s so different hearing the Bible in the language we speak.”

“You know something….I have a hard time understanding other pastors when they read the Bible because they don’t read clearly enough.”

“This is great! I really don’t like to read.”

And from someone without experience in the Bible:

“I love reading in Arabic. I always have a novel or philosophy book in Arabic with me for when I have free time. A few years ago a friend gave me a Bible for the first time and I thought it would be easier to understand than the Quran, but it wasn’t and I stopped reading. But with this project I felt like the story of Jesus came alive and I wanted to keep going to see what would happen next. It’s nice to be able to relax and listen to the actual story and not always be trying to figure out the difficult things in the written language.”

And that is from someone who reads in Arabic everyday!

For the audio under lessons and Bible:

A voice actor reads about 20 verses from the Good News Arabic Bible (Mushtarake) and then retells the passage in the Damascus dialect - like a TV drama from Damascus. The Written Arabic is read first to show the more formal and authoritative source that Arabs expect from a holy book. But when the voice actor retells it, he uses words that everyone in the room can understand no matter their education or religious background. He follows the Good News Arabic translation of the Bible closely and sounds like a Christian from Damascus because that is who he is. However, it should be clear to the listeners that it is important to him that everyone in the room can understand the Bible as he retells the passage with gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15).

The result of this retelling should be that someone from a Christian background will hear important words in a more vivid and impactful way and hear the Gospel in his spoken language. For someone who is from a non-Christian background, we hope to show him that Jesus is for him, today, no matter where he is from or where he is at on the journey towards Jesus.

For the audio under lessons
MP3s categorized as lessons also have Discovery Bible Study questions before and after the passage.
By having passages retold in the spoken language and including DBS questions on every MP3 anyone who can press play and pause on their phone can become a group facilitator and help others start new groups. This means people who aren’t fluent in Spoken Arabic or are unable to read Written Arabic can be involved in this.

All darb al wosoul audio uses the Mushtarake (aka The Good News Bible) which is an ecumenical translation by the Bible Society of Lebanon.

When the first MP3s were made, the target audience was only in Beirut and the decision to use the Mushtarake was based on 1) the council from local believers with the same purpose and 2) the ability to get permission to use the Mushtarake from the Bible Society of Lebanon.

It’s been a surprise to see God use this project beyond Beirut and in different types of communities. With these DBS MP3s, Arabs from all education levels and religious backgrounds have been able to understand the Word of God, groups are reproducing, and they are speaking and acting in a way that is accepted and relevant in their own communities.

So far, the feedback from those who have been using these MP3s for a year or more is that the translation of the Bible wasn't as big of a deal as they thought it would be. Group members still speak like they always have to their neighbors and to each other. They have also learned to filter and share other things with people before giving the DBS MP3s to them - an essential skill no matter what translation is used.

It seems that the Bible translation doesn’t change how people act and talk in their own community and culture especially if they want to remain a part of their own community. Instead, it's what is modeled by other believers and if someone goes to a church building that seems to influence what words they use and how they engage in their own communities.

Because of this feedback darb al wosoul intends to use Good New Arabic Bible for the long run with the hope that other people will create something similar in other dialects and with other Arabic translations of the Bible.

If you are interested in doing that, find us and we can connect, share what we have learned, and talk about making this technology available for you too.