I am an AV man, but that aside, I like the NKJV. Over the past few years it has had VERY strong sales. Funny thing: Nelson has NOT been "pushing" the NKJV! In point of fact, they used to have a website for the NKJV, not anymore! It seems they have been marketing the NCT strongly. Like I say, I think it is an remarkable trend, the NKJV hovering between the 2nd and 3rd place in sales both in CBA and internet sales. (I call it remarkable given the bias against the TR as a base for the NT.) Any thoughts on this trend or what might be driving it?

__________________
~etexas~

It's a middle of the road approach. People know that the KJV is the best, but buy into the notion of it's not current english, coupled with the so called modern updating. People know the NIV is bad, but want something connected with a rich history like the KJV. Anyway - Long Live the King Jimmy!!

my 2 cents -

__________________
Timothy Johnson
First United Presbyterian of Moline
PCUSA (Yea, I know)
Theology/Philosophy Sunday School Teacher
Davenport, IA

This may be part of it. Like I say, I am an AV man, BUT, I think the NKJV is the best of modern versions both in terms of accuracy and Hebrew/Greek Textual Basis. I guess a "little" part of me hopes the strong NKJV sales might be a sign of renewed interest in the TR.

I think it is because a lot of those who grew up on the KJV but who are looking for something more modern will go with the NKJV. This seems to be a common choice for pastors and churches who would prefer not to use the KJV but have a lot of members who still use it. I think this is one reason why the MacArthur Study Bible was first issued in the NKJV. MacArthur is Critical Text all the way as the notes demonstrate. I remember reading somewhere that the NKJV was chosen because it would appeal to a wider range of people than the NASB would.

I think the difference is also that within the last year or two they introduced a dirt cheap $1 edition that has sold well even though with the 3 column text I have found it practicably unreadable when I've looked at it.

__________________
C.P. --Attending Grace Community Baptist Church, Mandeville, LA

"Where is the young man who fears the judgment to come? What is the breath of an enemy of God to the blast of the soul by the breath of the Almighty? If you fear the frowns of a fellow worm, how will you stand in judgment with an angry God?" --Asahel Nettleton

Click to get: Board Rules--Signature Requirements--Suggestions?

The dirt cheap "models" might be some of it as well,but how does this explain the fast selling Uber-Expensive Cambridge Goatskin editions?

No bias here.

NIV sells well because of of the number of Arminian churches in America (huge market share) who use it and the number of indisputably good study Bibles that are based on it (e.g., The Spirit of the Reformation Study Bible). NASB keeps doing well because of the high percentage of dispensationalists in America who prefer it because of their literal hermeneutic. The HCSB is doing pretty good because of the SBC association. The ESV sells well because just about all of the true Christians have adopted it and promoted it.

KJV is still the preference for blue haired ladies who live in musty smelling homes and consider "In the Garden" the greatest hymn ever written. It is also the clear winner in the specialty niche of very opinionated food service personnel with hippie backgrounds and Wicca experience AND some people for whom theology begins with the 16th century and ends in the early 17th century.

NKJV is popular with NASCAR fundamentalists who do not drink, dance, chew, or gamble but hate Shakespeare.

Actually, since I think that the greatest theologians were Calvin, Turretin, Owen, and Edwards (with Bavinck coming later) AND I am too ig-nor-unt to like Shakespeare, maybe I should switch to the NKJV post haste???

__________________
Dennis E. McFadden
Atherton Baptist Homes, CEO
First Baptist Church of Alhambra, Member, Transformation Ministries (CA)

NASCAR Fundamentalist! Love it! I may borrow that!
Hey man! If you don't dig the Bard, the NKJV MIGHT be the version for you!

I think it was D.A. Waite or one of the other IFB KJV Onlyists who said in a critical review of the NKJV when it came out that real Bible readers wouldn't read it.

I hate 'In the Garden' It's perhaps the worst hymn ever written. I love the jocularities!!!

Would it add to my case for the King Jimmy if it was known that Jimmy Johnson is my favorite driver?? (A little Kenneth Haggin exegesis there!!)

Oh man, that is, that is - like - so deep and profound. Whoa, you got somethin' goin' on there.



Why do I like the NKJV? Simple. MT/TR with modern rendering. period.

__________________
Jonathan Hunt

1689'er
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom

Member, Preacher
Cheltenham Evangelical Free Church (Confessionally Based)

The explanation is actually quite simple. The customers have walked into the shop, picked up an NKJV instead of something else, and given the booksellers the money.

__________________
Daniel Ritchie
Saintfield, Northern Ireland - Queen's University, Belfast:History/Politics
Member of Dromara Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland (Covenanter)
http://reformedcovenanter.wordpress.com/
The Regulative Principle of Worship: Explained and Applied (Xulon Press)
A Conquered Kingdom: Biblical Civil Government (Reformed Worldview Books)

People who prefer the received text but don't particularly feel superfluiticiously naughty?

__________________
The Piper will lead us to reason...

Rick Larson
Hope Christian and Missionary Alliance Church
Apple Valley, MN.

If there isn't a website they must have just recently pulled it down. I was on it a few weeks ago.

The MacArthur Bible was first published in NKJV simply because Thomas Nelson published it, and they insisted on using their own translation. It was simple economics for them. MacArthur himself, as you pointed out, uses the NASB. (And I believe that the MAcArthur Bible now comes in NASB, too.)

__________________
Jacob Mearse
Racine Christian Reformed Church
Student, Reformed Theological Seminary (Virtual)
Lieutenant, U.S. Navy
Husband to April; Daddy to Wesley, Cyrus, and FaithMarie.

You are correct but IIRC I saw something posted once by someone close to MacArthur that what I posted above was one reason for using the NKJV. The MacArthur Study Bible was originally published in 1997 by Word, which later became part of Nelson or at that time was becoming part of Nelson.

Thanks for the clarification.

The New Geneva Study Bible (the first publication of the Reformation Study Bible in 1995) was NKJV because they could not come to terms with Zondervan in the early 1990's and turned to Nelson. It was originally supposed to be NIV.

Hey Dennis,

you forgot a niche. I know a contemporary poet who loves language and the precision with which it may depict spiritual realities, who came out of Woodstock, and is a poet of the streets. And who loves the saying by C.S. Lewis, "All that is not eternal is eternally out of date." No blue hair, though -- not much hair at all!


Chris,

I think a lot of what has been said above is true. It is the pew Bible in the church I serve, as I had a choice from the planting church of the ESV or the NKJV.

When I was teaching in Africa, I would have been glad for the class to have NKJVs instead of the ESVs they'd been issued before I got there, as the margin notes of the latter did a lot of damage to these folks' trust in God having a settled word He had given to the church. I could have worked with the NKJV. I did manage to bring some small KJV NTs with Psalms & Proverbs for the pastors in the class. Though some of the tribes had very accurate New Testaments in their own languages.

Steve

__________________
Steve Rafalsky
Elder, International Evangelical Church (Reformed)
Limassol, Cyprus

"I am set for the defense of the gospel" (Philippians 1:17)

"Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious
power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness..." (Colossians 1:11)

Because the tyranny of the critical text is over, serious students of the Bible want a translation based upon the authentic and legitimate tradition.

In the future, we'll see publications that echo Kurt Aland's sentiment that:

"We can appreciate the better the struggle for freedom from the dominance of the Textus Receptus when we remember that in this period it was regarded as preserving even to the last detail the inspired and infallible word of God himself." The Text of the New Testament, An Introduction to the Critical Editions, Kurt Aland, Barbara Aland, p 16

But it will be altered to reflect the new sentiment directed toward the Critical Text:

"We can appreciate the better the struggle for freedom from the dominance of the Critical Text when we remember that in this period no one regarded it as preserving every detail of the inspired and infallible word of God himself."

Ultimately, Christians, because they are regenerate creatures who want to believe God as the Spirit dwells in them, want and need certainty for their faith. The rise of the Critical Text and its dominance rests upon advancing unbelief, constantly and incessantly questioning the integrity of and Authority of Scripture and the certainty that rests upon that. That presupposition is temporary and paranthetical, because it produces an inferior faith.

As the disintegration of society continues and hell enlarges itself, the Kingdom of God will make tremendous advances, for it comes in clouds of darkness (Rev 1:7, Zeph 1:15), and the battle over Authority being in man or God will continue to intensify the polemic between advocates of the Roman position and defenders of Sola Scriptura, respectively, until everyone will view the Critical Text as an archaic relic of 4th century apostasy.

__________________
Thomas Weddle
Member, Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church
Evansville, Indiana

Elder Steve,

I was mainly going for jocularity, not precision. As you know, your arguments have had an impact on my thinking (enough to start re-visiting the issue and looking at it for myself). I just couldn't resist the blue haired ladies comment since I run a retirement home ministry.