V.W.H.Campbell Jr., Post-Gazette The Bible: Versions are multiplying across every imaginable platform and medium. Click photo for larger image. Related Article Bibles go digital with Web sites, multimedia and daily verses for your cell phone

Michael Marsee was running a Christian camp when he dropped his Bible into the swimming pool.

That accidental baptism did not bring new life to its pages. But from it was born The Outdoor Bible ($34.95 and up), a waterproof New Testament whose books fold like maps for easy packing. The Gospel of Luke can be used as a rain shelter.

It's a popular gift for troops overseas, said Bobby Bardin, a partner at tiny publisher Bardin & Marsee, which is up against Bible giants Zondervan and Thomas Nelson. Nelson responded with Immerse ($19.95), a water-resistant Bible.

The Bible is the bestselling book each year. Most publishers don't market translations but package them. They have fashion covers and notes for groups from cowboys to Catholic couples. Digital Bibles run on PDAs and iPods. But you can still buy it in black leather -- including a black leather edition for bikers.

"Specialty Bibles are born out of the intention of publishers to meet people where they are," said Tim Jordan, marketing manager for B&H Publishing Group.

B&H has a Bible for each branch of the military. The Marine's Bible ($19.99) has pages for service records and reflections on the relationship of Marine ideals to biblical themes. B&H's Golfer's Bible ($24.99) features photos of golf courses, and meditations by golf tour chaplains: "Brian Mogg, former PGA tour player . . . refers to Hebrews 12:2 to compare alignment in golf to alignment with Christ."

Publishers Weekly estimates annual Bible sales total between $425 million and $609 million. The giants are Zondervan, of Grand Rapids, Mich., with half the market, and Thomas Nelson of Nashville, Tenn., with more than 36 percent. Those publishers primarily target the evangelical market. HarperSanFrancisco saw that as an opening and is producing Bibles for more liberal and liturgical readers.

"We knew evangelicals aren't the only Christians out there," said Mickey Maudlin, vice president and editorial director at HarperSanFrancisco.

One of its first offerings was the Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible ($39.95-$44.95). Its editor is Richard Foster, whose writings on prayer, fasting and other spiritual disciplines appeal to liberals and conservatives alike. But its newly revised HarperCollins Study Bible ($32.95-$44.95) draws on skeptical scholarship that other Bible publishers would reject for theological reasons.

Harper has a long way to go to catch Zondervan, whose NIV Study Bible ($24.99-$89.99) has been the top-selling study Bible since 1985. But last year it lost its bestseller status to a new Zondervan creation, the Archaeological Study Bible ($44.99-$99.99), with articles linking Bible passages to research on the ancient world.

"A person who is going to have a fighting chance to really understand the message of the Bible needs to understand that it was an ancient book, written to an ancient people in ancient times. Some basic understanding of what those times were like is a tremendous help in navigating the Bible," said Paul Caminiti, vice president and publisher for Bibles at Zondervan.

Samuel L. Jackson as God
But Zondervan released an even bigger blockbuster last year -- The Bible Experience ($49.99), an audio Bible with theatrical effects and Hollywood talent. Blair Underwood is Jesus while Samuel L. Jackson is the voice of God. After selling its first run of 250,000 New Testaments in four months, Mr. Caminiti thinks it now ranks as "the fastest-selling Bible ever in the history of Bibles."

The cast is all black, but Zondervan has not marketed it as a Bible for African-Americans -- figuring, instead, that people of all colors will want to hear Denzel Washington and his wife, Pauletta, for example, read the erotic Song of Songs when the Old Testament is released this fall.

This fall Thomas Nelson will have Jim Caviezel of "The Passion" reprising his role as Jesus on another all-star audio Bible, The Word of Promise.

A local competitor set the standard with The WatchWORD Bible among digital Bibles. Jim Fitzgerald, trustee and CEO of Ambridge-based WatchWORD Productions, created it for video, DVD and download. A narrator reads the words as meditative music plays and the text is slowly superimposed over photos of nature or biblical scenes.

WatchWORD's New Testament is available at www.watchyourbible.com for a one-year subscription of $49.95. The DVD version is $129 and, if a pending deal with Wal-Mart goes through, will drop to $49.95.

"I like to say that we've taken the Bible from Gutenberg to Google Video," Mr. Fitzgerald said. "We are still a little ahead of the curve."

Bookshelf on a BlackBerry
Olive Tree Software of Spokane, Wash. is working that curve. It offers Bibles for Pocket PCs, BlackBerries, smartphones and other handheld devices. Most customers are men, 25-45.

"Some are pastors, but most are just Bible study leaders," said Drew Haninger, president and CEO.

It bundles Bibles and study aids that would overrun a large bookshelf. Olive Tree's iLumina ($49-$59) has devotional notes, a Bible encyclopedia and video tours of the Holy Land. For high-end users, The Scholars Collection ($429) offers 20 Bible translations, the Hebrew and Greek texts, five daily devotionals, 10 commentaries, 12 dictionaries, and three concordances.

Chris White, who trains college students to be Bible study leaders for the Coalition for Christian Outreach, has used such tools on his PDA. "I've taken Greek and Hebrew, and if someone asked me a question about the original text, I had it right there," he said.

A new challenge is to design Bibles for the post-modern generation. Nelson's attempt is The Voice, which is both a new translation and a new format. It's intended for the so called "emergent church" of young adults.

Each book of the New Testament is done by a popular writer, such as Lauren Winner, guided by two biblical scholars. Because these churches preach with drama, it is in script format. Italicized phrases provide context that is not in the original. Thus the genealogy at the beginning of The Voice of Matthew ($9.99) adds italicized details about some of Jesus' ancestors. Biblical passages that were originally written as songs are being set to music and put on CDs.

Publishers are also trying to address the interests of black Christians. Zondervan just launched Aspire: The New Women of Color Study Bible ($36.99). It profiles women in the Bible, has 100 notes on women's issues and 140 notes on African influence in scripture.

For the broader culture, "Family Bible" no longer means an old, dusty book. Nelson's Family Foundations Study Bible ($39.99-$59.99) is for families to read together, with notes on relationships and finances.

The Catholic Couples Bible ($21.95) from Fireside Catholic Publishing of Wichita, Kan., which is bringing specialty Bibles to a huge, neglected market. Its New Catholic Answer Bible ($29.95) helps Catholics respond to questions that they or others have about their faith.

Catholics are demanding the same choices in Bibles that their Protestant friends have, said Mary Elizabeth Sperry, whose job at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is to oversee use of the main Catholic translation, the New American Bible.

"When I was a little kid, you got a missal for First Communion. Now, increasingly, they get a Bible," she said.

The Rev. Thomas Hart, chairman of the theology department at St. Vincent College, recommends The Catholic Study Bible ($34.99-$45.00) from Oxford University Press. But he also keeps a copy of the more conservative Catholic Answer Bible on his shelf.

"I like it because many young adults want to know exactly what the Catholic Church teaches. They don't want it watered down, they want it straight, and then they make their own decision about whether to believe it or not," he said.

BibleZines for teens
So far Catholics have not been offered a BibleZine ($16.99). These are Nelson New Testaments that look like glossy lifestyle magazines. The cover of Redefine, for baby boomers, shows a couple riding down a wooded road on a motorcycle. Teasers include: "BONUS!!! Want to be more like Christ? Chuck Swindoll reveals 8 essentials to get you there."

Revolve, for high school girls, promises "35 secrets on developing true beauty." Nelson has sold 2 million BibleZines.

"They fit a lifestyle need. They are not threatening. You feel like you're walking around with a magazine,," said Karen Artl, senior editor for Bible acquisitions at Thomas Nelson.

Mr. White saw BibleZines when he was a youth minister.

"The sidebars are really helpful, and show teenagers how to think through and apply what they are reading," he said. "The bad thing is that there's a culture of cool, and I think this ends up reinforcing it. There are a lot of things in life that don't look cool, but are incredibly good. This may be reinforcing style over substance."

College students usually leave BibleZines behind, but there are a raft of Bibles for them. Mr. White likes Zondervan's NIV Student Bible ($19.99 and up). The notes, by evangelical writers Philip Yancey and Tim Stafford "are fantastic" for helping students think about the text, he said.

B&H's new Holman Student Bible ($24.99-$34.99). uses new paper that allows extensive color graphics. Young adults "learn visually, through charts and graphs," Mr. Jordan said.

But Mr. White wonders if packaging distracts from the text itself. "Having the resources is good, but you don't want someone telling you what to think" he said. "The Bible isn't a magical source to be decoded. I wonder if we are really reading and hearing it."

As if in response, this summer The International Bible Society which, like the American Bible Society, offers low cost Bibles for beginners, will publish Books of the Bible. It has no notes, removes chapter and verse markings and rearranges the books into more chronological order.

The Society does many specialty Bibles, for groups that include cowboys, bikers and women with crisis pregnancies. Its Free On the Inside for prisoners is free to any inmate who asks for it. Otherwise they're $3.50 each in a case of 24.

"Year after year we do hundreds of thousands of those," said Glenn Paauw, director of product development for IBS.

But Books of the Bible will be back to basics.

"Niche Bibles are all about adding things. This is about removing historical barriers so people will read the Bible for what it is," he said.