The NIV has been Dethroned?

The NLT has dethroned the NIV.  When is the last time something like this has happened?  But there’s a catch.

1. Going into September according to CBA, the NLT has dethroned the NIV based on Unit Sales.

2. But the NIV remains #1 for Dollar Sales with the NLT coming #2.

But Bryon S quotes from the Operation Worship site, which provides the reason behind the impressive numbers for the NLT:

“Bible Shipments to our service members are going out on a daily basis, averaging over 1,000 Bibles per day! One shipment of 10,240 Bibles left Tyndale House Publishers in a mass deployment recently.”

But why was the Bible of choice not the (T)NIV or the ESV but instead the NLT?  Well, I found this on the Tyndale site.  It’s from the FAQs: How does the NLT compare to the NIV? Here’s the first paragraph of the answer given:

Both the NLT and NIV are excellent modern-language translations that display a balance between formal equivalence and dynamic equivalence. The NLT, however, leans more toward dynamic equivalence when passages demand a thought-for-thought translation to make the meaning of the passage clear to modern readers. This is especially true in the Epistles, where the NIV tends toward a literal translation that is sometimes hard to understand. The NLT, by contrast, consistently leans toward a dynamic rendering that presents the meaning of the text simply and clearly.

Simply put, the NLT beats the NIV on more dynamic renderings, emphasizing the hot demand for such approach in Bible translations.  But these are just summer numbers.  We still have the fall to come and then the winter, which is followed by another spring.