Christian Retailing

Parallel Bibles given a fresh emphasis Print Email
Written by Eric Tiansay   
Wednesday, 28 September 2011 03:34 PM America/New_York

The steady-selling subcategory of parallel Bibles is being given a fresh emphasis by two of its leading publishers.

Zondervan has changed the name of its comparative editions as a result of consumer research conducted as part of the updating of its New International Version (NIV), released earlier this year.

The company discovered that consumers more easily comprehend the concept of a "side-by-side" Bible rather than the more commonly used term, "parallel Bible," said Chip Brown, Zondervan's senior vice president and publisher for Bibles.

"For that reason, we renamed our parallel Bibles to side-by-sides," Brown said. "We believe this will allow the consumer to find what they are looking for more easily and have a visual understanding of what they are buying."

So far this year, Zondervan has released the NIV & KJV Side-by-Side Bible, Large Print (April) and the regular print edition NIV & KJV Side-by-Side Bible (August). In January, the company will bring out the NIV & NKJV (New King James Version) Side-by-Side Bible.

"With so many translations now available, we see the need for side-by-side Bibles increasing over the next three to five years," Brown said.

With five parallel Bibles already on the market, Tyndale House Publishers this month releases the Parallel Study Bible, which features its New Living Translation text paired with the NLT Study Bible and Life Application Study Bible notes. Laura Bartlett, Tyndale's Bible marketing manager, said that the Parallel Study Bible is "a completely new kind of parallel Bible."

"Instead of having the Bible translations in parallel, there are two kinds of study notes in parallel," she said. "This way readers can first understand the passage, with the exegetical study notes from the NLT Study Bible. Then readers can apply that passage to their lives with Life Application study notes. The Parallel Study Bible is a category-changer that is helping retailers and customers rethink what a parallel Bible can be."

Read more in the November issue of Christian Retailing.