Actor Sir David Suchet CBE has read the whole of St John's Gospel at Westminster Abbey for its upcoming Easter Sunday service.The book, which contains 879 verses, was read from the abbey's renowned Jerusalem Chamber.
The recording will be broadcast as a streamed premiere via the abbey's website at 4pm here.
Sir David Suchet said: "I count it as a great privilege to be filmed reading St John's Gospel in the iconic Jerusalem Chamber of Westminster Abbey."
The Dean of Westminster, the Very Rev Dr David Hoyle, said: "When the translators of the 'King James' Bible met to agree the final text, they tested it 'by ear'; they read it aloud. Hearing the gospel is not the same as reading it and having David Suchet read John, in the Jerusalem Chamber, is both exciting and compelling."
Best-known for playing Agatha Christie's fictional detective Hercule Poirot, Sir David became a Christian in 1986 after reading a hotel room Bible. He has read the entire Bible before, for Hodder & Stoughton's NIV Audio Bible, which has sold over 100,000 copies worldwide - and a previous reading of the whole of St Mark's Gospel at St Paul's Cathedral has received over 1.5 million views online.
The Jerusalem Chamber has a long history with Bible translation. It hosted the translation committee for King James I's Authorized Version of the Bible in 1611, who read the full Bible aloud in the final stages of their work.
