Since Prayer Prompter first appeared on the App Store three years ago, it has been offered for free and has included Scripture passages from the King James Version which is in the public domain and royalty free. Many people prefer the KJV and some of them think that it is the only translation of the Bible that Christians should use. At the same time, many people struggle to understand some of the words used in the King James Version; words which were in common usage when it was published in 1611 but now, some four hundred years later, have changed their meaning or are completely unfamiliar to modern day readers. Making matters worse, literacy is on the decline for those whose primary language is English and, for many users of Prayer Prompter, English is a second language and they may struggle even with the words of a modern translation.
My goal is to make Prayer Prompter as accessible (and useful) as possible, to as many people as possible, which includes offering a fully functional version for free. One way to keep it free is to avoid paying publisher’s royalties for the use of Scripture. Fortunately, the publisher of a reliable translation in modern English, The Lockman Foundation, has graciously given me a license to use the the New American Standard Bible (NASB) without a royalty. So, with the release of Prayer Prompter 2.2, new users get Scripture passages from the NASB rather than the KJV because I believe there are many more uses who would benefit from Prayer Prompter if it was offered in a modern translation and the NASB is one of the best. I regret that I am not able to offer a choice of NASB or KJV at this time but a plan is being developed to implement such an option by the end of the year.
Also, a plan is being developed to offer other translations, ones which are not royalty-free, as a low cost ($1.99) in-app purchase. In the meanwhile, users can switch the existing Scripture passages to another translation by a manual process of copying and pasting if they want to. Details are here.
