How to Turn a Bible Book into an Audio Book

If you're someone who likes to listen to audiobooks instead of read the dead tree editions, here's a free way to turn a Bible book into an audiobook for your mp3 player.

I followed this process this morning to turn the Acts of the Apostles into an audiobook. I'm preparing to preach through Acts starting Easter Sunday, so I'm listening to it on my iPhone as I do my morning workouts. I'll hear it 5-10 times before I start preaching through it.

The following can work for an entire Bible book or just selected passages that you want to hear.

First: To find the passage you want in the English Standard Version, search at this website.  If you're copying a long section, I suggest you break it apart. For example, I broke the Acts of the Apostles into sections of 7 or 8 chapters at a time. Here's the page for my first download.

Second: Download the file. Right-click the "Listen" link and follow the instructions on the drop-down menu to save the file as an mp3 on your hard drive. If you're going to break a large section of scripture into smaller portions (like I did with Acts), I suggest you rename the files something that place them in sequential order. For example: "Acts1" then "Acts2" then "Acts3" and so on. This will be important as you take the next step.

Three: Download the free program "Merge MP3" here. This little program will stitch your audio files into a single mp3 file. This isn't absolutely necessary in order to put your files on an mp3 player, but it sure makes it easier to manage. Once you've downloaded the program, follow the directions to stitch your mp3 files into a single mp3 file. For me, that allowed me to have a single audio file of the entire book of Acts in sequential order.

Four: Load your mp3 file into your player.

Five: If you have an iPhone or iPod, you can take an additional step to turn the mp3 file into an audiobook. This makes it much easier to manage: In audiobook format, an audio file will start playing where you last left off instead of starting from the beginning of the file each time you return to it. In iTunes, right-click the mp3 file you want to convert. In the drop-down menu, click "Get Info." Click the "options" tab and look for "Media Kind." It probably says "Music." Click the down arrow and you'll see some options. Click on "Audiobook," then click "OK."  Your file will disappear from your music library and appear on your audiobooks library. When you sync your iPhone or iPod, it will available for listening.