Comments on: Wednesday Roundup http://www.thechurchgeek.com/archives/922 thoughts on faith, church, and life Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:03:13 -0400 hourly 1 By: Dave Pepper http://www.thechurchgeek.com/archives/922/comment-page-1#comment-26983 Dave Pepper Sun, 02 Nov 2008 13:52:03 +0000 http://www.thechurchgeek.com/?p=922#comment-26983 Jim: Re-reading your older posts, I noticed the comment about the "Green Bible" and the rest of the special interest ones out there these days. I have this book http://www.amazon.com/American-Bible-History-United-1777-1880/dp/0804743398 on my shelves. It's been a while since I read it, but the thesis is that the plain 'ol Bible is and has been a commodity since the early 1800's. You can get one for free or nearly free just about anywhere. So there's no money in it for publishers to print text-only Bibles. The American Bible Society will undercut them every time. If publishers want to make money on the multi-billion dollar Bible market, they have to well, market them. Hence the proliferation in the early 1800's of family Bibles with glossy pictures, maps, the pages in front to record significant family dates, etc. Of course, since then, the market has become niche marketing--Bibles for tweens, teens, college students, moms, dads, grandpas, grandmas, football players, football referees, the guys who run the chains during games, up to and including a Bible for the cheerleaders. So it's not really about the text itself, it's about how to market the text to a specific target audience. Sdaly, in the end, it's all about the Benjamins--and not the ones in Scripture. What ever happened to sola Scriptura? Jim: Re-reading your older posts, I noticed the comment about the “Green Bible” and the rest of the special interest ones out there these days.

I have this book http://www.amazon.com/American-Bible-History-United-1777-1880/dp/0804743398 on my shelves. It’s been a while since I read it, but the thesis is that the plain ‘ol Bible is and has been a commodity since the early 1800’s. You can get one for free or nearly free just about anywhere. So there’s no money in it for publishers to print text-only Bibles. The American Bible Society will undercut them every time.

If publishers want to make money on the multi-billion dollar Bible market, they have to well, market them. Hence the proliferation in the early 1800’s of family Bibles with glossy pictures, maps, the pages in front to record significant family dates, etc. Of course, since then, the market has become niche marketing–Bibles for tweens, teens, college students, moms, dads, grandpas, grandmas, football players, football referees, the guys who run the chains during games, up to and including a Bible for the cheerleaders.

So it’s not really about the text itself, it’s about how to market the text to a specific target audience. Sdaly, in the end, it’s all about the Benjamins–and not the ones in Scripture.

What ever happened to sola Scriptura?

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