28th November, 2003, updated 24th December, 2003

There’s Bibles for men, Bibles for women. Bibles for teenagers and children. Study Bibles, devotional Bibles, paraphrased Bibles. Bibles on CD. Even a Bible for tech-savvy mobile phone users. DAVID ADAMS reports...

Pictures: iStockPhoto

It’s the most read and - certainly Christians would say - the most influential book ever written. Yet ever since the Bible was first “published” the scriptures have been translated, polished and revised, appearing in an ever increasing array of languages and formats.

These days the Bible has been published in more than 2,000 languages and since the first printed English-language New Testament was published in Germany in 1525, the number of English language versions alone - if single books of the Bible are included - has been estimated to be as many as 500.

And that’s not including the ever increasing number of Bibles which publish traditional versions in a new format such as the recently released Surfer’s Bible or Revolve - a magazine-format Bible for teenage girls, or any one of the myriad of “study bibles” now available.

“The range now is really quite amazing,” says Greg Page, marketing manager at the Bible Society in Australia which distributes around 300,000 Bibles in Australia annually.

“(There’s) variety in each translation as well with different ones focused at different groups.”

Page says the diverse nature of the different versions now available is all about getting the Bible across to different audiences and he cites the Rugby Bible and the recently released Aussie Bible as examples.

He points out that the Bible Society is also currently translating the Word into Kriol - the major Aboriginal language used in the Northern Territory.

The Society and Church Resources recently released a new service called Daily Verse SMS. While it was mooted that the verses would be delivered in text message language - so that, for example, “For God so loved the world” becomes “4 God so luvd da world” - the final service is delivered with the text in full.

“That really is the idea - how can we get the Bible in a format that people will understand? It’s getting that relevance, getting something that appeals to that target market.”

Page estimates that there are as many as 2,000 different Bible versions - including different translations and different formats - available in Australia today.

He believes that most Christians these days will own several Bibles during their lifetime in response to their changing needs.

For example, he says a new Christian may start off with a straight-forward translation of the Good News or the New International Version (the most popular Bible translation in the world today) and then upgrade to a study Bible format as they grow as a Christian. They may also find their church prefers to use a particular translation.

“Then there are the different types of study Bible too: there are some that are really focused on the notes and they might provide a commentary on what (something) means and there are Bibles like the Life Application which is more about applying the Bible to life. There are different seasons.”

Christian booksellers spoken to by Sight say that while the NIV remains the most popular English translation, versions such as The Message - which translates the Bible in a single flowing narrative - have proved popular.

David Beer, general manager at Victorian-based Keswick Books, suggests that part of the reason for the number of different translations is to do with the evolution of the language.

“I think people are much more conscious these days of trying to relate to the

common person and I think the language has tended to change fairly regularly,” he says. “I think the idiom sort of changes.”

Rob Ronday, national Bible buyer at Koorong Books, agrees that most Chistians tend to have as many as three or four Bibles which they may use for different purposes.

He also notes that Bibles targeted toward specific groups - such as the Surfers Bible - are useful as an outreach tool.

It’s a point picked up on by Laurie Whaley, a spokesperson for US-based Thomas Nelson Publishers who recently published Revolve - a New Century Version New Testament packaged in a fashion magazine format along with beauty tips, Q&As and statistics which is aimed primarily at teenage girls.

“Jesus was all about culture. He completely understood the times in which He lived and He was very much a part of the culture...” she says in a recent interview.

“Revolve exists to show teen girls that indeed, the Bible is relevant, applicable, and can be a very integral part of daily living.”

Whaley says that the idea for the Bible developed after research showed teenagers didn’t read the Bible, finding it “too big, too intimidating, too freaky”.

“We asked them what they read and the response was magazines,” she says. “So that’s where the idea evolved for us to develop a Bible that looks like a magazine...We wanted to show them that the Bible could be inviting, relevant and understandable.”

Kel Richards, author of The Aussie Bible - not a translation of the Bible as such, but a collection of yarns based on stories contained within the gospels and told in “Aussie English” - says he was also inspired by the desire to present the Bible in a way that is relevant to people.

“The idea is to tell the Gospel to people who would otherwise not hear the Gospel and to tell it to them in language they’ll understand,” he says.

“It’s not meant to be read in church, it’s not meant to be used liturgically. It’s not a study Bible, it’s not a devotional Bible. It’s an evangelistic tool - that’s it.”

Richards, a Sydney-based journalist who works with the ABC, says the idea for the work came about after he came across a book written by Mike Coles, a schoolteacher working in the East End of London who, in a bid to teach Bible stories, parapharased them into Cockney-rhyming slang.

“It worked like a charm. Suddenly these kids understood the stories and were really interested.
“When he’d done a number of these, they were published in a book called The Bible in Cockney (Well, bits if it anyway). I came across this and I thought, that’s been done in a language used in one part of one city. We have this very rich Australian language...which is spoken by 20 million people across a whole continent, someone should do the same thing for us. So I did.”

When Sight spoke to Richards, 28,000 copies of the 30,000 in the first print run (released in August) had already been sold and a reprint of a further 30,000 was planned.

Richards says he has no plans to perform a similar retelling on other Bible books.

“The only way that I’d like to expand it is to think up creative ways for churches to use it: for churches to use it for letterboxing for example.”

Richards says he was recently told of a man who evangelises in pubs who, instead of telling Bible stories, now reads them from the Aussie Bible. He also envisages the text could by used for devotions with kids, for Christians on holiday (particularly when holidaying with non-Christian friends), and for beach missions.

“I’ve found in my own personal evangelism, it’s a great giveaway tool because if you give someone a copy of John’s Gospel or a tract or something, they give you a funny look, but if you give them the Aussie Bible, they say ‘Oh, well that’s interesting’ and the likelihood of them reading it is much higher,” he says.

“So I’ve gotten into the habit of always carrying one in my pocket and I keep giving them away to taxi drivers and all sorts of people.”