The King Bible
Just came across the most recent statistics for Bible sales from the Christian Booksellers Association of America, which is based on the number of Bibles sold in January in the USA and Canada :
| Ranking | Title | Author/Publisher | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | King James Version | various publishers | |||
| 2 | New International Version | various publishers | |||
| 3 | New Century Version | Nelson | |||
| 4 | New King James Version | various publishers | |||
| 5 | New Living Translation | Tyndale | |||
| 6 | English Standard Version | Crossway | |||
| 7 | Holman Christian Standard Bible | B&H Publishing Group | |||
| 8 | New American Standard Bible update | various publishers | |||
| 9 | The Message | Eugene Peterson, NavPress | |||
| 10 | Reina Valera 1960 (Spanish) | various publishers |
I must admit I’m a bit stumped by this. Why on earth is the KJV so popular? The language is so archaic that it’s virtually impossible to read, and it’s textual basis has been significantly eroded by more recent discoveries. I guess there are plenty of cheap KJVs out there so price might be a factor, but then again it’s possible to score a decent paperback NIV or other more modern version at a very low price so I doubt that’s a major reason. Could it be due to the influence of weirdos like these people, who believe that the KJV alone is the infallible and inspired word of God in English? I always thought these sort of people were more fringe fundamentalists and would never have imagined that they held enough sway to drive a 400 year old almost unitelligible book to the top of the sales lists! I don’t think I even own a KJV aside from the one on my Palm Pilot, which I downloaded for free when I got my Bible software – but I rarely even look at that version. I do have a couple of NKJVs in print form, but although the ‘Thees’ and ‘Thous’ have been removed I still find the style a bit old fashioned and hard to follow at times.
I guess the sad thing is that millions of people are buying (and reading?) Bibles which they would probably find difficult to understand. Could the language be a major barrier for them to be getting the most out of what they are reading?
Categories : Bible | 8 Comments
