The Updated Bible: Moses v. Steve Jobs
2011 marks the 400th anniversary of the King James Version, a classic Bible that still outsells many of the most contemporary translations.
Recent technological advances are changing how businesses publish the Bible, how people consume the Bible, and how we share the Bible, says John Sawyer, former vice president of Bible marketing at Zondervan and current brand and marketing strategist for Somersault.
Sawyer told attendees of Religion Newswriters Association’s conference yesterday that people are reading the Bible without historical context and reading the Bible in isolation as a result of many technological advances.
“Scripture has been packaged for a sound bite culture,” Sawyer said. “Readers have lost the narrative arc of the Bible.” Technology is also changing how we share the Bible through tagging, Wiki, widgets, webinars, and other recent shifts on the Web.
Of course, one of the ways the Bible is transmitted is through Twitter’s 140 characters. The top tweeted authors include RevRunWisdom, Rick Warren, and John Piper, though Piper’s account has been inactive since March, probably due to his leave. Miley Cyrus was the most frequent recipient of Bible tweets (1,200 times), mostly encouraging her to keep her life in order.
Despite the print Bible’s popularity, publishers have adjusted their approach towards more Web-based tools. For instance, Biblica is releasing a new Bible that strips away all the footnotes, red letters, chapters, verses, and columns, and rearranges the Bible chronologically (see the video below).
(Southern Baptist Convention) will release a new Bible called the HSCB Bible and launch MyStudyBible.com in October.
Tyndale was the first publisher to simultaneously release a Bible in print and searchable online versions when it released the NLT Study Bible, Sawyer said.
Zondervan’s eBibles represent more than 40 percent of their eBook revenues and sometimes outsell their print Bibles. The company’s BibleGateway.com sees over 8 million users per month.
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