Years ago I made a post showing which version of the Bible was the most searched for in the the USA and in the world. The terms I used were acronyms like KJV, ESV, CSB etc. Well, as I said it has been a couple of years so I thought it good to revisit this topic and see how things have changed…as you will see, they haven’t.
Over the last five years, the KJV remains by far and away the most searched for version of the Bible in the USA compared to the following competitors – NKJV, ESV, NIV, CSB, and LSB (see the blue line).
But wait, there’s more! The KJV remains by far and away the most searched for version of the Bible in the World when compared to the same competitors (see the blue line).
What I find interesting is how similar the rest of the versions behave. They are practically next door neighbors in the world of relative search frequency.
Now some might opine, “Well there are more searches for the KJV because it is harder to understand.” The data do not indicate as much but let’s assume it is true, wouldn’t the natural thing in seeking understanding be to abandon the “harder to read/understand” text than to continually search somewhere in the range of 400% more times than you would for other versions?
What seems more likely is that people who read their Bible tend to be KJV people and as such seek to study what it says. See below.
So after over a century of scholars and neophytes bashing the KJV, it seems that for some odd reason, perhaps an odd singular care and providence kind of reason, this 400 year old version of the Bible with all of its “thee’s” and “thou’s” still remains at the top. You know, something like a standard sacred text for the English-speaking church.
Standard Sacred Text.com 