Bible Version Sales

See here for the lastest sales figures for Bible versions in North America. Here is the list as of February 2007:

1. NIV
2. NKJV
3. KJV
4. ESV
5. NLT
6. TNIV
7. The Message
8. NCV
9. NASB (updated)

It must be noted that these statistics are compiled by the largest trade organisation and presumably those who aren't connected to it aren't included. Although it is possible that the data comes from the publishers themselves.

It should also be noted that current sales are not indicative of overall usage. The newer versions may be higher up in the chart in regards to sales than is the case in actual usage.

Albrecht Dürer for the Reformation

We have been watching the great Francis Schaeffer's video on Church history in the pre-service fellowship meeting at Trinity. Last Sabbath, he looked at the Reformation and told us a most interesting fact: that the great Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer was a supporter of Luther.

This seems to be true from his diary, despite claims to the contrary. The fact is he died within the Catholic Church because he died in 1528 prior to the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, when Lutheranism became a separate movement.

Here is a quotation from his diary at a time when he didn't realise that it was actually Luther's supporter Frederick of Saxony who had kidnapped him:

"On Friday before Whitsunday in the year 1521, tidings come to me at Antwerp that Martin Luther had been so treacherously taken prisoner.... [They] carried away the pious man, betrayed into their hand, a man enlighted by the Holy Ghost, a follower of Christ and the true Christian faith. [He] suffered this for the sake of Christian truth and because he rebuked the unchristian Papacy.... May every man who reads Martin Luther's books see how clear and transparent is his doctrine, when he sets forth the Holy Gospel. Oh God, if Luther be dead, who will henceforth expound to us the Holy Gospel with such clearness?"

Click here and here to see more of the great master's work, and by the way, the engraving on this other post is by Dürer.

More...

Economic Deja Vu?

I came across this interesting quote recently (see this BBC article in this context):

‘In return for her exports India wanted little but gold… The balance of trade was unfavourable to the West, and resulted in a serious drain of gold from the Roman Empire. This was recognised by Pliny, who, inveighing against the degenerate habits of his day, computed the annual drain to the East as 100 million sesterces, “so dearly do we pay for our luxury and our women”. The drain of gold to the East was an important cause of the financial difficulties in the Roman Empire from the reign of Nero onwards.’

A.L. Basham, ‘The Wonder that was India’ (Pliny is quoted from his ‘Natural History’ Bk 12.18.

Daily Light in NASB

We have come across Daily Light in the old version of the NASB here. See this other article on Daily Light.

Correction

It had previously been stated regarding Trinity RP's decision to replace the use of the NIV with the ESV that the Session had been in correspondence with the NIV Publishers because the original statement seemed to say that to some of those present. However, this has been corrected through discussion with a member of session, so I want to make this clear.

It was rather that our Session learnt through private discussion (correspondence?) with a contact in the Christian book industry that the publishers of the NIV are pushing the TNIV more and the NIV will not get the emphasis it once had.