Too Many Bibles?

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In their book “God is Back,” Economist journalists John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge describe the plethora of Bible versions now available:

“Thomas Nelson, the Nashville-based Bible firm, publishes sixty editions of the Bible every year. The Good Book now comes in every color of the rainbow, including the colors of your college. There are Bibles for every category of humanity, from “seekers” to cowboys, from brides to barmen. The African American Jubilee Bible contains over three hundred pages on the black religious experience. There is an outdoor Bible with laminated paper and a camouflage Bible for use in war zones. There are Bibles for family prayers, Bibles for personal devotion, Bibles for the theologically minded, with historical details, Bibles with commentaries by celebrated Evangelicals. The “hundred-minute Bible” summarizes the Good Book for the time starved.”

Annual Bible sales are worth in the region of $500 million. Over a hundred million Bibles are sold or given away every year and there are more than 500 English translations of the Bible. Yet despite the existence of all these Bibles the extent of Bible knowledge is shockingly low. A Gallup survey found that in the US fewer than half the population (who have an average of four Bibles sitting on their bookshelves) can name the first book of the Bible and 12 percent think that Noah was married to Joan of Arc!

It as if Bible publishers have carpet bombed the world with the Word of God, but with as little helpful impact as was achieved by the use of napalm in Vietnam.

Bible publishing is big business, and owning the ‘right’ Bible has often become just one more segment of our consumerist culture. It amuses and saddens me when leading conservative evangelical bloggers post excitedly about the latest edition of the ESV or the ESV Study Bible to hit the shelves – as if it contained anything new! What difference does the color of your cover make to the state of your soul? What does it matter if it is leather or card? How do we end up being both so fashion-conscious about our Bibles and so religious about them?

The translation of the Bible into many languages and its ready availability throughout most of the world has been one of the great triumphs of the post-Reformation period. But making the Bible just another aspect of our individualistic, sentimentalized, consumerist culture has been a great tragedy. The Bible only really makes sense when it is read and applied in Christian community. It is inspired by the community of the Trinity, written by men who were part of the community of the faithful and is intended to instruct and guide the Church. It should not be used as a kind of fortune cookie – a religious lucky dip for the individual believer to extract out of context ‘promises’ which serve only to reinforce the individualistic, materialistic dream of Western culture.

Never mind the cover. Eat the content.

3 Comments

Andy Back  on July 14th, 2009

Well said, Matt.
Just one thought: which is better? Too many Bibles or too few? I say hoorah for Aldus Manutius, moveable type and Caxton and all that mob. The word of God can be living and active and act as something sharper than any two-edged sword when it can be off the bookshelf and being read by cowboys, soldiers, businessmen, children, Greeks, Brazillians, artists, preachers, sports stars, Goans, deep sea divers, Alaskan gold-diggers, politicians, housewives, bankers, french-speaking Algerians, triple-jumpers, knitters, tv presenters, Elders’ teenage offspring etc etc

Peter Roxburgh  on July 14th, 2009

I would challenge people who are going to buy yet another new, funky, more up-to-date, different coloured Bible to instead give that money to BibleSociety or Wycliffe Translators. That way someone else who hasn’t got ANY Bible could have the joy of the Word of God in a simple paperback cover in a language that they can read and understand.

….. still praying for my ESV Study Bible to arrive miraculously…

Amanda  on July 21st, 2009

I think you’re absolutely right about a Bible not being of any use unless you do just that, use it. At the same time, I don’t think that telling people to read the Bible is enough anymore. I think many people have become lax, which is a shame because for as many women who love a good romance, men who love action, and for anyone who loves drama, you certainly find it in any version of the Bible.

I think most of us set out to read that Bible we buy…but we make it another chore and don’t read it for the richness. We haven’t been exposed to the adventure it can be.

(but, honestly, some of the study bibles out there do offer a fresh perspective on the actual content; and the different features–like cross references–of bibles can be very helpful :) )