It is a fascinating exercise to see which Bible translations are preferred in the United States. This data comes from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, whose methodology is comprehensive and fair.
I am comparing the 2022 end-of-year data with another summary I did in June 2021. In other words, the comparative rankings are 18 months apart. The numbers in parentheses are the rankings as of June 2021.
1. New International Version (NIV) (1)
2. English Standard Version (ESV) (4)
3. New Living Translation (NLT) (3)
4. Christian Standard Bible (CSB) (6)
5. King James Version (KJV) (2)
6. New King James Version (NKJV) (5)
7. Reina Valera (RV) (7)
8. New International Reader’s Version (NIrV) (9)
9. New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) (not ranked)
10. New American Standard Bible (NASB) (not ranked)
No longer in the top ten bestselling translations:
- The Message (Message) (8)
- Nueva Version International (NVI) (10)
Observations:
- The biggest surprise is the drop in the King James Version from 2nd to 5th. It is a significant drop in just 18 months. If this ranking becomes normative, it behooves us to do a deeper dive to understand why this translation has fallen from favor for many Bible readers.
- The biggest beneficiaries of the KJV decline are the English Standard Version, the New Living Translation, and the Christian Standard Bible. All three of those translations are relatively new in the history of English translations.
- The New International Version remains the best-selling translation. Though we don’t have market share data, we anecdotally surmise that the NIV is losing market share to the next three translations (ESV, NLT, CSB). There has not become a clear-cut “heir apparent” for the number one ranking if the NIV does indeed lose its place as the best-selling translation. Based on our conversations with church leaders, we could see either the ESV or the NLT taking the top position. Both of these translations have been in the second spot at different months of the year.
- We were surprised to see the NASB return to the top ten rankings after falling out 18 months ago.
- Disclosure: Church Answers has a partnership with Tyndale and the NLT. Also, I was the CEO of the company that commissioned the CSB.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this information.
Posted on January 2, 2023
With nearly 40 years of ministry experience, Thom Rainer has spent a lifetime committed to the growth and health of local churches across North America.
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38 Comments
I think it’s important to underline that this is marketshare for NEW, PRINT Bibles. It doesn’t give us a view of what people chose to read at home, or of which versions they read, or listen to online. As a middle aged Christian, I have a wide variety of Bibles on my home shelves, and I also I read a variety online. I probably read from King James and NIV most often when reading a hard copy. Meanwhile, I’m listening to NRSV this year online (with Fr. Mike Schmitz). When I do an online search, I might chose a variety of translations to compare – a favorite for that use being the interlinear. Nowadays, I use an electronic Bible more often than a print one. But, when I BUY a Bible, I tend to buy a translation I don’t already own. So, one might suspect that a large variety of Christians like me – people who already OWN one or more Bibles, are bumping up the sales data for newer translations, without those translations necessarily being the ones they read from the most.
While it is obvious that some cannot wait for the (supposed) inevitable demise of the KJV, I have no intentions of placing mine in the donate cart at Goodwill. After over 45 years of study, I still find it to be one of my favorite translations and suppose it will remain to be so.
What with the ease of availability of just about any version one prefers, it is a glorious time to be a student of the Word, which is why my ESV and NASB versions are never far from this old Biblical conservative.
I spent 2022 reading through the CSB, and I really liked it overall. It finally corrected some errant translations that dated back to the KJV (chief among them Proverbs 22:6). I avoid the KJV and other translations based on the Textus Receptus because of its inferior Greek manuscripts. As another commentator put it, the KJV moved translation forward in a great way for its day but needs to give way to translations based on better, older manuscripts. I use NIV 2011 when I preach in order to have uniformity between what I’m reading and what is in our pews. ESV is my typical go-to for study, although I will reference NASB in the OT since my Hebrew is much weaker than my Greek.
I favor the ESV because I believe that the scholarship is very good. I value your thoughts on this matter.
SLands2
Sterling –
The scholarship of the ESV is solid.
The benefit of a translation with thee, thou, and ye is, if you know their grammatical use, one can get the singular and plural straight from the text. I have heard priests during the homily pull out the Elizabethan English, aka Authorised version (KJV) for that reason.
That’s interesting, Mark.
I wonder if the NASB has returned because it has been updated (2020 I think). And some early reviews said that the new NASB was much more readable, but now not as literal. But readability is so important, so I’m assuming that the new release has contributed to the uptick in sales.
You are correct, Don. The most recent NASB revision was in 2020.
People, I suspect, have been buying the King James Bible but have not been reading it. They bought it on the recommendation of a friend or they heard or read somewhere that it was the world’s most widely read Bible or it was the Bible used for Scripture readings at their church. However, when they tried to read it for themselves, they had difficulty with its language and grammar.
The King James Bible and the 1662 Book of Common Prayer were used in the churches that I attended before the age of 10. The King James Version and later the Revised Standard Version and 1928 Book of Common Prayer were used in the church that I attended as a teenager. I learned King James and Prayer Book English as a second or third language. However, most of the young people I know if they are familiar with a Bible, it is most likely one of the more recent translations.
I am a senior scholar at my local state university and I was for a number of years involved in a campus church. University students are not going to read a Bible whose language and grammar they do not understand and they show negligible interest in learning. Foreign exchange students particularly struggle with the language and grammar.
There are exceptions: drama students performing Shakespeare’s plays and English majors specializing in sixteenth and seventeenth century English literature and those who come from a Church of Christ or “King James only” church background. But they are a minority.
It is hard enough to get university students to read a more recent translation of the Bible, much less the King James Version. University students and other young adults, with the exceptions that I have mentioned, also do not have a sentimental attachment to the King James Version as do the older generations.
I use several translations in preparing sermons, homilies, and talks. Since I have no Hebrew and only a smattering of Greek, I took the late Reginald Fuller’s advice and use the American Standard Bible, not to be confused with NASB, and several more recent translations, occasionally using the Blue Letter Bible’s Greek Concordance, which uses the text of the King James Version. Among the versions I use are the NIV, NRSV, ESV, CSB, and J. B. Phillips. I also use the NLT and the Good News Bible.
This hypothesis is solid: “People, I suspect, have been buying the King James Bible but have not been reading it.”
The old prayer book English (1662) has its benefit especially when the verb comes first in the sentences because the verb is more important than the subject.
It’s interesting a verb (action) is more important than the subject. Hebrew is an action language and the original text for much of the Bible even the NT spoken in Hebrew (portions are found in Hebrew predating koinonia Greek manuscripts as well). The Bible has a lot to say about the importance of actions and the Greeks have their affections for thoughts. When people say “I was having nice thoughts about you.” If it’s devoid of action, it’s meaningless, reminiscent of having a relationship with addicts, marketing, and some politicians. Yet our Greco-Roman culture finds value in the exchange of words. While the Bible teaches the importance of actions and fruit produced, there is an American cultural prevalence to value words and even make excuses for bad behavior. Perhaps the authors of the old prayer book (1662) recognized this problem in the English translation.
I’ve moved mostly to the NET bible. For the digital version at least,, there really is nothing close to it in the area of included translator’s notes, and that allows for more freedom to translate texts into a more readable form without loosing a connection to the original text for someone willing to do a minimal mount of note reading. It certainly has focused on digital over print though, so I don’t see it making a list like this anytime soon.
Thanks, Joshua.
Thanks for this info on the popularity of Bible translations. This pretty well reflects what I have been observing in my visiting from church to church as an Association Director of Missions. I am a little surprised to see CSB jump above the new king James version. I personally use the new king James version for my preaching, and often use the NLT from a private reading.
There are indeed some surprises in these rankings, James.
Notwithstanding the devotion to the KJV among fundamentalists and many conservatives, the KJV is becoming the cursive writing of Bible translations… too much trouble to teach and learn, and learning to decipher its arcane manner of speaking offers almost no advantage to disciples or discipling (outside ideological commitment). The real shame is that the KJV continues to be so popular in the face of far superior translations that have actual solid scholarship behind them. The NET deserves to be in the top ten, and probably right at the top for its careful scholarship, excellent translation notes and conversational style of translation. The NRSV, while the product of solid scholarship, is too pedantic (and too tied to the KJV/AV through its original commitments) and stiff in its wording. The REB, easily the best reading translation is nowhere to be seen.
The Ford Model T deserves respect and due props for all it did to start the real age of auto manufacturing and showing the essentials for future automobiles. Most of the important elements for automobiles were in the Model T. It was also dangerous, balky, hard to handle and uncomfortable. The KJV was an important step forward, and using the Catholic scholar Erasmus’ humanist original texts made sense then. But it is no longer 1611. The test we have now is not even the text that was presented in 1611, which would have been indecipherable to modern readers (and was not even in the spoken style of the common people by the end of that century). The KJV is vital as a literary key to the development of modern literature and thought. If it were that essential, wouldn’t our commentaries and theological tomes be written in the same style? KJV will pass into its appropriate role eventually – as the honored ancestor, not the grizzled, angry dictator conservative churches have made it to be.
Good thoughts, Robert. Thank you.
I wonder if the CSB has moved up so quickly because of its affordability in case quantities (we buy them for the church), the many varieties of study Bibles (such as Apologetics, the Spurgeon, She Reads Truth, etc) and just the price point of the more exoensive Bibles. It’s a good Bible.
NASB I would think those who buy it would be more serious students of the Bible because of its reputation.
Bible of choice as a DOM, I prefer the NASB to preach from but I will use the NKJV because it’s an okay middle of the road.
Glenn –
I wish I had precise market share data, but I suspect that much of the gain of the CSB, the NLT, and the ESV came at the expense of the KJV.
Dr. Rainer,
My concern is seeing NASB, the most formal translation from Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic, rank barely as number 10. I think this speaks volumes and not in a good way either.
I love the NLT translation because of how easy it is to read, but I think there’s something to be said about the lack of people willing to read a translation that respects the original languages and allows the reader to properly interpret the text using the hermeneutical process rather than going off the understanding and interpretation that is, ultimately, someone else’s expert opinion. Again, not downing translations like NLT, but I struggle with this as a seminary student and pastor-in-training. My own pastor preaches from the NASB and it’s never an issue.
Biblical literacy is almost non-existent nowadays and that is a frightening reality. Believers must think and question whether a certain translation is accurate.
I, too, love the NASB and use it as the one I study. But to quote a wise man who was asked “What is the best translation of the Bible?” “THE ONE YOU WILL READ!”
Good word, Ralph.
Thanks, Jonathan.