What are the benefits of a red letter edition Bible? Red letter edition Bibles seem to be popular in the US. The difference to a plain Bible is that words of Jesus are printed in red. The first red-letter Bible was published in 1900, and the practice still seems mostly limited to the most major languages. I've only ever seen red letter editions in English.

I understand the benefits of a new Bible feature for the publisher, but I fail to see the benefits for the reader. It's usually very easy to find what is spoken by Christ and what by someone else, just by reading. The red letters do make it still a bit easier, but I don't understand why we would be optimizing for finding Jesus' words. Not all passages of Jesus' speech are very central to our faith. The important ones still aren't more important than some other passages in the New Testament, I think.

What then are the benefits of a red letter edition Bible supposed to be?
For the Synoptic Gospels, it is more clear who is speaking immediately. It is just like why we have chapter and verse numbers -- they are easy references which were added later for clarity (I actually own a Bible which pre-dates the inclusion of verse numbers, it is very hard to find quotes in it).

In the Gospel of John, however, the words of Christ and the words of the narrator are so intermingled, that the red letters are somewhere between worthless and deceptive.