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Comparing Greek NT Manuscripts and Texts

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BibleWorks8

• Texts Available (bold texts come with base package; other for additional cost):
  • Nestle-Aland 27th Edition/UBS Fourth Edition Greek New Testament
  • Robinson-Pierpont Greek New Testament (Byzantine Textform 2005) 
  • Scrivener’s Greek New Testament (Textus Receptus, 1894)
  • Stephanus Greek New Testament (Textus Receptus, 1550)
  • Tischendorf Greek New Testament, with Critical Apparatus
  • Von Soden Greek New Testament (1902-1913)
  • Westcott and Hort Greek New Testament (proofed & corrected)
  • Papyrii (Comfort & Barrett)
  • There is also an extensive collection of free, user-created add-in modules (including the Washingtonensis, Alexandrinus, Sinaiticus, Bezae, and Vaticanus codices) that are linked to the biblical text but are not available as texts for direct comparison with the ones listed above.
    
• Comments: As one might expect with BW, there is an abundance of texts included in the base package, and response times are very quick. The text comparison feature is enabled through the menu via Tools > Viewing the text > Text Comparison Settings or, more quickly, by clicking on this button in the tool bar: . The dialogue box that appears (see figure 1) provides quite a few customizable options. One can have up to 4 groups and each group can have as many texts as you want. Of course, the more texts you add, the more differences that will be highlighted in each, so the results are most clear when you only use 2 texts. Also note that the order in which the versions are listed determines which is the base version for the comparison. Colors can be customized, and groups of results can be toggled on/off separately. There are two methods of comparison though the LCS (Least Common Substring) will be used most often. There are other options for ignoring accents and moveable-nu. When comparing more than 2 versions at a time, the "Cross-compare all versions" provides a better display. Additionally, note that each group has an "Export" option. By clicking that button, BW8 will compare the versions listed and export a list of every verse that has a difference and send the results to the Search Window. It took about 15 seconds to generate the list for the whole NT. (For more info about the options, remember simply to hit the F1 button when in the dialogue box.)

Usually BW8 displays text verse by verse, but one can also specify a passage of any length. In order to see texts in vertical rather than horizontal parallel, one should use the Parallel Versions Window available through the menu via Tools > Viewing the text > Parallel Versions Window or by clicking on the panes button in the toolbar. (See figure 2.) This window is also customizable, but the best feature is that also allows for the kind of setup shown in figure 2 where I have compared 4 Greek texts, placed the KJV (which used the Textus Receptus) and ASV (which was largely based on the Westcott & Hort text) on either side, and enabled comparisons of both the Greek texts and the KJV/ASV texts. It is somewhat difficult to save text results in BW8. The Browse Window results may be copied/pasted into another program (be sure to enable "Export Colors" in the text copy configuration dialogue), but can not be saved at all in the Parallel Windows except by snapping a screen image.

• Pros:
  • Abundance of texts to compare provided in base package
  • Speedy response
  • Configurable comparison settings
  • Export function that identifies all verses with differences
  • Can compare multiple groups of texts in different language groups
  • Available add-in modules to supplement text critical work
  • Both horizontal and vertical parallels (though vertical requires additional window)
• Cons:
  • Highlighting only indicates differences and insertions (not transpositions or omissions)
  • Transpositions are not indicated
  • Horizontal parallels must be copied/pasted to an external program
  • No way to print vertical parallels (other than as screen image)

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