Best-Selling Bibles

I don’t normally follow the sales ranking of English Bible translations, but I happened to come across it recently and it got me thinking about some of what it says about Bible buyers in America. You can see the list here, but for convenience, I have pasted it below (from Feb 2006; the linked page is updated monthly and so may change).

1 New International Version
2 New King James Version
3 King James Version
4 New Living Translation
5 Holman Christian Standard Bible
6 New American Standard Bible update
7 The Message
8 New Century Version
9 English Standard Version
10 New International Readers Version

As I count, 4 of these are essentially literal translations and 6 are dynamic equivalent or paraphrases. Without the KJV and NKJV, I would guess the percentage of “literal” ones in the top ten would be lower.

Of the 10, 9 were translated or revised in the last 30 years. 6 were produced in the last 10 years. So clearly the newest Bibles sell better, with the exception of the top 3 which are older than 10 years.

What is not listed is also surprising: no RSV or NRSV. These are largely used by mainline and liberal denominations. Does this say anything about the Bible buying patterns of those in these groups? Also, there is no TNIV. That may be because of the controversy, because of the competition (a big market would be NIV users, who might not see a need to switch from the NIV), or because it is too new. It’s probably all of the above, but I predict that marketing muscle will get this in the top 10 before too long.

It is interesting (shocking?) that the #2 and #3 best sellers are KJV and NKJV. Together they would easily be #1 (and in fact, by itself, the NKJV was #1 last month). That means that there are a LOT of people buying these. This is sad because 1) both are based on inferior manuscripts and 2) what the KJV has (an eloquent archaic style), the NKJV fails at and is a poor read. In my opinion, no one should ever buy the NKJV and only people over 60 should buy the KJV. Ok, that’s a little strong, but at least these shouldn’t be the best selling Bibles. Last week I was out on a field trip and I forgot my Bible in the hotel room and so I had to borrow someone else’s to read to the group. It was a KJV and I found it quite difficult to read (and understand). You can call me uneducated, but since this would be the only indication of that, I would suggest that the old style is much less understandable at least to those born in the 1970s or later. Even to one whose first Bible was a KJV.

The worst named translation? The Holman Christian Standard Bible
In second place: New American Standard Bible update (every word is bad except for “Bible” in both translation names).

I’m not trying to make you mad; just to make you think. These are just my opinions, and I’m not pretending that my opinion counts for much. I am pretty sure that the issue is near the bottom of the list in terms of what really matters.