Bible Translations Abound

Walking thru Barnes and Noble, it is amazing how many shelves are taken up by all the various versions/translations of the Bible.  Seems like theologians (and probably even some non-theologians) have gone a little wild in working to publish so many.

KJV NKJV NIV RSV ESV MSG GoodNews : and on and on and on!

So why are there so many?  Personal opinion:  money has got to have something to do with it, right?  What I mean: every time a new version comes out, they know a bunch of folks will add it to their collection.  Especially if the translation is sponsored by a popular preacher OR features a new type of reference/commentary OR has embedded  devotionals OR is written for a specific focus group (i.e. students, athletes, student athletes, military athletes, veterans, widows, quilters, muffinmen, etc.).

This provides some good reasoning:

https://www.crossway.org/articles/why-are-there-so-many-versions-of-the-bible/

Speaking of Bible translations, which do you think are the best-selling ones?

Several of them are mentioned above.

The big 3 (as of 2020 at least):  NIV, KJV, NLT 

Rest of the top 10:

https://churchanswers.com/blog/the-top-ten-best-selling-bibles-compared-to-ten-years-ago/

I grew up NIV, and it's still the one I prefer.  I do read The Message a lot too.  Some argue that's not a real translation.  While I agree it's one man's somewhat-loose modern interpretation, I find it brings a fresh perspective to the ancient Biblical texts.  I get virtually nothing from KJV, although I do remember borrowing Papa Honnold's "Oral Roberts Reads the Bible" KJV cassette tapes back as a youngster.

I'll leave you with this graphic to chew upon:

Grace and Peace and Love to you all -

Matt