All documents produced in the ancient world were meant to be read out loud, not read in silence.
The reason is because most ancient documents were meant to be communicated to large groups of people at once.
However, even when a letter was written for just one person, that letter was not just handed over to the recipient.
Nope, in that case it was still read out loud to him.
This wasn’t because the person couldn’t read.
It was because the letter was created in such a manner that it was best understood when read out loud.
The Hebrew Bible is the same with all of its poetry and songs.
And that’s the disadvantage non-Hebrew speakers face when reading the Bible.
Once a Hebrew word or phrase is translated into another language, the grammar and structure of the original Hebrew which lent itself to storytelling is erased.
This leads me to another important point and this is something as a professional direct response copywriter I have to pay attention to every day.
When crafting a message, I have to pay attention to the delivery method of that message.
Am I creating an email sales funnel?
Is it a video letter for a Webinar?
Is it a small Facebook Ad?
Depending on the delivery method, how I craft my message and what words and phrases I choose to use will be different.
For example, ever try reading a science textbook out loud and understanding it?
It’s darn near impossible because there’s just too much dense information crammed into it.
A textbook is meant to be studied alone in silence.
However, take a look at this excerpt written from a Dr. Seuss book.
Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!
You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself
Any direction you choose.
You’re on your own.
And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy
who’ll decide where to go.
Can you see how a book of this writing style was meant to be read out loud because of all of the nice word tricks and rhyming?
It’s how the story sounds that makes it pleasing to the ear and memorable.
Well, the same goes with Scripture…
…in the original Hebrew that is.
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