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Holman CSB, in its first year, at No. 5 on bookstore charts


NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–The Holman Christian Standard Bible, at the first anniversary of its release, has exceeded expectations in the marketplace, said David R. Shepherd, Broadman & Holman senior vice president/publisher and executive editor of the new translation.

“From December 2003 to December 2004, the Holman Christian Standard Bible soared from No. 11 to No. 5 in the General Versions & Translations’ best-seller chart of national sales data from Christian retail stores,” Shepherd said.

“This is particularly significant,” he noted, “because the entire Bible wasn’t even released until April 2004, so it went head-to-head with translations that had Old and New Testaments available during that entire 12-month period.”

With approximately 1.5 million full Holman CSB Bibles in print, he described it as “a remarkable achievement.”

The Holman CSB, the first all-new Bible translation from a major publisher in more than 25 years, was commissioned by Broadman & Holman Publishers, a division of LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention.

An international team of 100 scholars and English stylists representing more than 20 different Protestant denominations worked together from the original biblical languages of Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic to achieve a translation that is both accurate and readable. The Holman CSB New Testament was released in 2001.

In addition to hardcover, the Holman CSB is available in leather, paperback pocket sizes and regular and large-print Ultra Thin references. There also are a number of specialty editions for groups such as military personnel, police officers, firemen and sportsmen as well as the “Every Day with Jesus Bible,” which organizes the full scriptural text into 365 daily readings. The Every Day with Jesus Bible was created to coincide with the Southern Baptist Convention’s 2005 Year of the Bible initiative, which encourages people to read through the entire Bible in one year.

A number of churches throughout the nation used the Holman CSB translation in their Year of the Bible readings. For example, Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., purchased 1,000 copies of the new Every Day with Jesus Bible. Using the theme “The Journey,” Highview’s Pastor Kevin Ezell preaches each week from a passage that church members can read the previous week in the Holman CSB.

Pastor Ronnie Floyd of First Baptist Church in Springdale, Ark., formulated a year-long Bible reading plan, covering 1,189 chapters, for the 3,750 people in the church who committed to read through the entire Bible in 2005. The church has given away about 6,000 Holman Christian Standard Bibles to members, attendees and guests to adults and to students in grade six and up.
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For a complete list of Holman CSB products, and to read the entire Holman CSB text online, visit www.holmancsb.org.

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