"Sounds amazing, doesn't it?" he said.

Well, in a word: Yes.

Jesus' voice was actually the voice of actor Jim Caviezel, one of the hundreds of voices that are part of one of the most ambitious audio projects in history.

"The Word of Promise Audio Bible" is the King James Bible in its entirety: a 79-CD set of more than 98 hours of dramatic audio theater, with an original score by Stefano Mainetti, feature film quality sound effects, narration by Michael York, and the work of 600-some actors, including such stars as Richard Dreyfuss (Moses), Gary Sinise (David), Marisa Tomei (Mary Magdalene), Stacy Keach (Paul), Louis Gossett Jr. (John), Joan Allen (Deborah), Max von Sydow (Noah) and Luke Perry (Judas).

Martin Jarvis, a relatively unknown British actor, had what was perhaps the most daunting part: He plays God.

Cerny also recruited a number of local actors to participate in the project, among them Chelcie Ross, Linda Kimbrough, Mike Nussbaum, Danny Goldring and David Pasquesi.

It began four years ago when Cerny was approached by an old Chicago friend, Carl Amari, a moviemaker and radio show producer.

Of his most famous work, Cerny says, "(the Doughboy, aka Poppin' Fresh) is warm, cute and just a likable guy. My job is to try and help keep him that way."

In 1987, Advertising Age magazine called the Doughboy America's most-loved character.

Cerny estimates that there are 3,600 characters in the Bible, "but thank goodness not all of them speak."

As the director of the more than 600 speaking parts, Cerny saw his mission as one that "turns these characters into real characters, have them played with full emotion, with context.

To put these in the moment in time when these words were first spoken."

To do this he was in frequent consultation with theologians and linguists, reading and re-reading the Bible, "trying to bring these passages, these people to life."

"I was scared to death I might make a mistake, maybe with issues of translation," he says.

"This was a huge mountain to climb."

Most of the roles were recorded in Cerny's Illinois Street studios.

There were seven other venues, in places such as Nashville, Los Angeles and Italy.

All of the sound effects were created here, using high-tech equipment and some unusual items:

The plague of the frogs in Exodus was accomplished by having raw chicken breasts thrown against a cement slab.

"Carl and JoBe (approached this) with a seriousness and a passion that ... is admirable," said Jason Alexander, who plays Joseph, in an interview with Black Christian News. "They (were) engaging, thoughtful and truly professional."

And so it has ended, after 6,000 hours of studio time, more than 175,000 takes, thousands more hours of mixing and editing.

Craig Lee was there for all of it. He was the head sound engineer for this project and for the hundreds of other less time-consuming chores for movie companies and advertising clients that he has worked on during his 15 years with Cerny.

"When we first started it was a little scary," he says. "I was in awe of this project. We just plugged away, day by day. It's been a very meaningful experience."

Cerny nibbled another doughnut before saying, "The days were sometimes endless. It was an honor for me to be asked to dig deep enough to make this happen. I knew it was in me somewhere. "We have a lot of other projects here but now there isn't this huge pressure. It almost feels like there's nothing to do."

Amen to that.