Selling Convienience and the Bible

Like many who are raised Christian I tried reading the bible when I was young. Mine was brown with Gold letters on the front yet was made for grade school children and most likely shared some similarities to the bibles with limited vocabulary mentioned in Timothy Beal’s book The Rise and Fall of the Bible pg 139.
 Despite the assumed intentions of the publisher much of the bible still bored me to the point of falling asleep with it still open. It took many years before I finally read the complete bible. The first time I read the Bible it was from an app I downloaded, an action that may cause concern for those who value the medium of the message as well as the message its self.
The experience of reading a scroll, flipping through a book and getting daily notifications to read your bible every morning are indeed different ways of reading scripture. Considering the outdated and unwieldy nature of scrolls and the disappointing statistics on bible reading, maybe those concerned with increasing biblical literacy should judge not. I most likely would not have finished reading the bible if it were not contained in an app that continually knocked on the door to my daily life…and I am still debating how I feel about that and bible related media.
Timothy Beal writes about the unchecked consumerism present in the bible publishing industry, once money is involved bibles start looking very different to meet demand in niche markets. And that is what makes this app different, it’s free. The You version Bible app isn’t fault less they offer reading plans and have added video material however they are still the technological equivalent of the free bibles from Gideon’s international found in hotel rooms and elsewhere.
This app I downloaded offered numerous versions of the bible to choose from it was overwhelming to me since the app lacked a decent summary of how each version was created. Currently it has 1261 versions in 916 languages and still not any version summaries available. After reading about the Geneva bible and its problematic commentaries that latter led to its downfall I can see why YouVersion the creator of the app hasn’t added any summary material. (Or sold advertisement space for that matter) If they later decided to add information about the different versions how could they write with out bias?
 In an attempt to decide which version of the bible to read I read certain passages switching between the versions offered, and sometimes compared them side-by-side. The change of just one word can change meaning and interpretation entirely as in the example on page 142 where The council behind the creation of the RSV Bible decided to use the words “young woman” instead of “virgin” in respects to Mary and experienced the onslaught of angry Christians that thought they were trying to debate or deny the legitimacy of Jesus’s virgin birth. The presence of many versions drew me to contemplate why; there wouldn’t be 1261 versions of the same thing if there weren’t different opinions.
While I can agree that it is wise to avoid adding summary to bibles, I am not against adding more text to this bible app. What if the bible app I used or an entirely different app contained collections of biblical translations like that of the polyglot bibles (pg. 123), Having a collection of not only modern translations but old ones too would be useful for bible reading and make the study of how translations of the bible happened through history available to the general public in an convenient format. With more education bible readers might also clear false assumptions surrounding the King James Bible.
My understanding of the Bible at the time at the time I read it, was that the KJV was the oldest extant bible that had been copied from a long history of bibles that had been collections of text written and collected within 100 years of Jesus’s death.  It took me over a year but I finally read “the bible” I switched between versions sometimes but for the most part kept between an easy to read meaning-based translation and the KJV.
Now, understanding how meaning-based versions continue the long-standing trend of change in biblical history, I would have not made that choice. But I’m not sure I would have kept with the KJV either. The KJV bible was a response to all of the unfavorable notes found in Geneva Bibles, and also a counteraction to the political and religious unrest that was the Protestant reformation.