CBA Extended Bible Rankings for March 2015
Thanks to KT for the link from the CBA Retailers site, which shows that the NABRE and NRSV are in the top 15 unit sales. The CBA Best-Seller and category top-seller lists are compiled from actual sales in Christian stores. This list does not include Amazon-type retailers or Catholic book stores.
It's kind of sad that an ecumenical translation like the NRSV is ranked that low.
ReplyDeleteQuite surprised to see the NAB above the NRSV.
ReplyDeleteThe NRSV is ranked ow in this list because the CBA is a group of conservative evangelical Christian book stores, and thus their customers tend to gravitate towards more traditional translations that don't use inclusive language.
ReplyDeleteThus, CBA sales numbers DO NOT reflect actual total Bible sales nation wide, and at best reflect merely the preferences of a small group of conservative evangelicals.
This is actually the first time I have seen the New American Bible on the CBA list, it comes as quite a surprise to me. I didn't that most evangelical Christian books stores even sold Catholic Bibles.
Another rather bizarre anomaly of this list is the high rank of the Reina Valera and Nuevo International, two Spanish Bibles. I seriously doubt either of these translations sells very well anywhere other than CBA stores.
Some evangelical Christian bookstores I've been in have a small Catholic section and that could account for the NAB sales. I have seen some stores lump the NAB with other versions. I also think there could be some confusion at work as well since the NAB is close in name to the New American Standard Bible (NASB). I wrote the CBA a few years ago asking about Catholic Bibles and they told me another group tracked them. Its good to see a change.
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