Surprise Bestseller in Norway: The Bible

Edited based on reports in:

“Gleanings” from Christianity Today, Melissa Steffan, Jan. 10, 2013

The Norway Post, NRK/Press Release

The Guardian (UK) Alison Flood, Tues. 3 Jan. 2012

The book that recently spent the most time on Norway's bestseller lists—54 of 56 weeks—is a new translation of the Bible. In the past 14 months, the translation sold 157,000 copies. That’s a significant number given widely-scattered Norway’s population (of less than 5 million) is not much bigger than the Greater Toronto Area’s population.

The Guardian reports that the new Bible translation released in October 2011, sky-rocketed in popularity and has remained popular throughout 2012.

The release of the new Norwegian Bible in the Fall 2011 saw overnight line-ups, with bookshops selling out on the 1st day as Norwegians rushed to get their hands on the new edition.

"We only printed 25,000 to start with and thought it would last 6 to 9 months, but it was launched mid-October and by the end of the year it had sold 79,000 copies – it's just incredible," said Stine Smemo Strachan, who worked on the project for the Norwegian Bible Society. " … There were people sleeping outside the day before the launch because it was embargoed..."

First New Norwegian Translation in 30 Years

This is the 1st new Norwegian translation of the Bible in 30 years.

Work on the new translation began in 2000. The Norwegian language has two major dialects --Bokmål and Nynorsk. The new translation renders Scripture into both of these dialects. 

Bokmål (or riksmål) is the Standard Norwegian spoken by 75 % of the population.

Nynorsk (or landsmål) is “New Norwegian,” a dialect based language from the mid-1800s spoken by 25 % of the population.

30 consultant translators, priests and academics translated the Greek and Hebrew originals into Norwegian for the new edition, with a team of 12 literary authors smoothing out the text in terms of readability. "Obviously it was very important to get the right translation but they also wanted it to be readable, to make sure it was good literary language," said Smemo Strachan.

A "literary" version of the Bible, with no chapters or verses which "reads like a novel", has also been published and has "sold incredibly well", said the publisher.

80% of Norway’s 4.9 million people are “officially Christian” and count as “members” of the Church in Norway. Not all the new edition's purchasers are thought to be buying it for strictly religious reasons. "It certainly can't just be actively religious Christians who are buying it because it just wouldn't make these numbers," said Smemo Strachan. Let’s pray that this new Norwegian Bible translation not only gets into the hands, but also stirs the hearts of many Norwegians, so that it changes many from merely “nominal Christians” into genuine believers!

Strong Translation

Anne Veiteberg, director of the Norwegian Bible Society, which published the translation, told The Guardian that the Bible's popularity comes down to the strength of its translation.

"It has been said that the new translation is closer to modern Norwegian language and therefore easier to read," Veiteberg said, "and at the same time it is closer to the original texts in Greek and Hebrew than older translations when it comes to style and poetry, images and metaphors."