Comparing Greek NT Manuscripts and Texts

Logos3

(Logos3 with full-size graphics)
Texts Available: (bold texts come with Original Languages package; other for additional cost):
- Nestle-Aland 27th GNT
- UBS 4/Westcott-Hort
- Westcott and Hort Greek New Testament (1881)
- Papyrii: Comfort & Barrett's The Text of the Earliest NT Greek Manuscripts
- Stephen's Textus Receptus (1550)
- The Interlinear Literal Translation of the Greek New Testament (Newberry; the Stephan's 1550 text with English interlinear glosses)
- Elzevir Textus Receptus (1624)
- Scrivener's Textus Receptus (1881) 2.0
- Scrivener's Textus Receptus (1894)
- Byzantine Text form (Robinson/Pierpont, 2000)
- Tischendorf's Novum Testamentum Graece Apparatum Criticum
- NA27 with Critical Apparatus in Stuttgart Electronic Study Bible (SESB) Version 2.0
- The Greek New Testament According to the Majority Text, with Apparatus (Hodges and Farstad)
Comments: To make textual comparisons, you need the "Compare Parallel Bible Versions" add-in (included with OrigLang, Scholar's, Silver, or Gold libraries). The tool is accessed via Tools > Bible Comparison > Compare Parallel Bible Versions.

One must choose the versions to compare, a task which may be a bit awkward if one has lots of text databases. The initial version serves as the base version, and one can choose as many versions as desired to compare to it. A verse or passage of any length can be set as the range. By clicking on the "Sensitivity" button, one can choose to ignore or not case, marks, and punctuation. The display is different than any of the other packages here in that not only are differences in the compared text highlighted in blue, but differing or omitted words from the base text are added in to the compared text highlighted in pink. It takes bit to get used to this display, but it certainly does highlight the differences and make them easy to compare.

An additional feature is that the number of variants are calculated, and a percentage difference from the base version is provided. Another particularly nice feature is the ability to export results to an HTML file as you can see HERE.
For an example of comparing papyrus texts in Comfort & Barrett with the NA27, see this Logos article.
Logos has a couple of other features that aid in comparing versions. The Bible Version Cluster tool provides an overall representation of similarities/differences between versions by word choice.

or as web page

The Bible Versions Differences Rivers tool charts out the differences according to specific units of text, and a click on any section will open it in the Parallel Bible Versions view.

or as web page

These tools are only approximate, but they do provide a quick overview of the relationships between versions. (Note that these comparisons can be generated rather quickly for small units of text. Running a Bible river for 5 Bible for the whole NT took over a half hour.) The results can also be easily exported to HTML files, but you will need IE (not Firefox but an IE tab in Firefox works) to view them.

Pros:

Large selection of texts, most of which are included in Original Language package
Comparison highlighting occurs quickly
Can compare more than two versions
Options for customizing highlighting
Bible versions cluster comparison and Bible version river comparison
Capability for easy export to HTML

Cons:

Inability to have English versions displayed alongside Greek text (except as linked texts in other windows)
Transpositions are not indicated
No option to ignore moveable-nu
Running comparisons between large sections of text can be very slow

BACK TO COMPLETE REVIEW