Textual Variants Collection (48 vols.)

by Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon; Maurice A. Robinson; Robertus Stephanus

and

30 more

Publishers:

Hebrew Union College; Faithlife; Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft

and

22 more

, 1624–2014

Preserved by hundreds of ancient manuscripts spanning a dozen ancient languages and ancient Christian cultures, the Bible has a complex history of transmission, transcription, and translation. Omitted verses in ancient or modern translations (such as Mark 16:9–20 and John 7:53–8:11) leaves many Christians wondering about the reliability of modern Bible translations or the canonicity of Scripture. With the Textual Variants Collection, studying the transmission of each and every verse of the Bible becomes much, much easier. With your Logos Textual Variants feature, you’ll be able to see how each verse was preserved and translated throughout the centuries, whether through Egypt in the Coptic tradition or by Rome in the Latin translations.

Become equipped to explain the history of Bible transmission and preservation, and gain insights to the treatment of the Bible text in early Jewish and Christian cultures. The Textual Variants Collection pulls the original-language texts from numerous commentaries and codices, allowing users to view overviews and commentary on missing or extraneous passages, and compare primary texts with modern translations.

Curious how these resources work in Logos? Watch the video below to see for yourself where you’ll be using them:

• Contains Logos resources with extensive specialized Textual Variant tagging
• Covers both Old and New Testaments and the apocrypha
• Spans dozens of ancient manuscripts and texts that cite variant editions

• Title: Textual Variants Collection
• Volumes: 48
• Resource Types: Ancient Texts, Ancient Manuscripts
• Languages: Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Syriac, Coptic, and Aramaic
• Topic: Textual Criticism
• Software Requirements: Logos 7 Bronze, Full Feature Set, or higher

A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament

• Authors: Bruce M. Metzger
• Publisher: United Bible Societies
• Publication Date: 1994

This work is a companion volume to the fourth edition of the United Bible Societies' Greek New Testament (UBS4), published by the German Bible Society on behalf of the United Bible Societies early in 1993. It also makes a great companion to the German Bible Society Bundle, which contains the critical apparatus of the NA27 Novum Testamentum Graece, and to Comfort & Barrett's Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts.

Introduction to the New Testament in the Original Greek: Appendix Only

• Authors: B. F. Westcott and F. J. A. Hort
• Publisher: Harper & Brothers
• Publication Date: 1882

Westcott and Hort’s Introduction is one of the most important, ground-breaking books in New Testament Studies. This resource contains only the appendix, which contains the second portion of the volume, including Notes on Select Readings—in essence, a critical apparatus or textual commentary on important New Testament passages. There are also appendixes for Old Testament quotations and orthographical notes. The full version of Introduction to the New Testament in the Original Greek is also available individually.

The New Testament in the Original Greek: Byzantine Textform 2005 with Morphology (BYZ)

• Authors: William G. Pierpont and Maurice A. Robinson
• Publisher: Chilton
• Publication Date: 2005

The Robinson/Pierpont Byzantine Greek New Testament with complete parsing information and lemmas for all Greek words.

The Byzantine Textform represents the texttype reflected among the vast majority of extant manuscripts. It is from this family of Byzantine texts that the early printed Greek New Testaments (“Textus Receptus” editions) and early English versions such as the Bishop’s, Geneva, Coverdale, and King James Version derive, as well as the early European versions such as that of Luther and the Dutch Staten Vertaling.

This 2005 edition of the Byzantine Textform includes variant readings from within the Byzantine tradition and variants found in the NA27 and UBS4 modern critical editions.

The Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts

• Editors: Philip W. Comfort and David P. Barrett
• Publisher: Tyndale
• Publication Date: 2001

Containing transcriptions of the 69 earliest New Testament manuscripts ever discovered, this book provides a representative sample of the New Testament that was read by Christians in the earliest centuries of the church. These manuscripts were the “Bible” they read and revered; to them, these manuscripts were the New Testament text.

Superb documentation. Painstaking accuracy. That’s what makes this work an invaluable reference for serious Bible students. Intended for scholars and students who are interested in the original text of the Greek New Testament. This is an accessible and accurate collection, invaluable in determining the original text of the New Testament.

This volume provides all manuscripts as their own separate resource, allowing you to separate them into personal collections and treat each manuscript as its own document.

The New Testament in the Original Greek (Westcott and Hort)

• Editors: Brooke Foss Westcott and Fenton J.A. Hort
• Publication Date: 2009
• Pages: 392

This volume represents the best edition of Westcott and Hort’s classic text. According to Bruce M. Metzger, the Westcott and Hort Greek New Testament was “the most noteworthy critical edition of the Greek Testament ever produced by British scholarship.” They presented the oldest and purest text attainable with the means of information available in their day, took and refined the then-nascent critical methodology, and applied it to the various texts, producing the classification system that’s still in use today. Their evaluation of the various texts and text families, almost unchanged, is still accepted. This text, published in 1881, is the first modern critical text and, as such, the ancestor of the Nestle-Aland and United Bible Society texts. It is of use to those interested in the history of textual scholarship and those who do serious critical work. This particular edition of the 1881 Westcott and Hort text contains morphological analysis and has been thoroughly reviewed and corrected against the various print editions.

The New Testament in Greek (Scrivener 1881)

• Editor: F.H.A. Scrivener
• Publication Date: 2008

This Greek text (Scrivener 1881) is the Greek text which corresponds best to the 1611 King James Version. The Scrivener text is a modified Beza 1598 Textus Receptus in which changes have been made to reflect the readings chosen by the KJV translators. Scrivener’s intent was to artificially create a Greek text that closely matched the translator-modified Textus Receptus text and the resulting English version. This is a useful text for comparison for those with proficiency in Greek.

Further, this edition of the text is fully morphologically tagged with the Logos Bible Software morphology; it also includes lemma (dictionary) forms and Strong’s numbers for every word in the Greek text.

Elzevir Textus Receptus (1624) with Morphology (TR)

• Editors: Maurice A. Robinson
• Publication Date: 1624

The Stephens 1550 Textus Receptus adjusted to reflect the text of Elzevir 1624. Prepared by Dr. Maurice Robinson from the collation data in Scrivener’s Plain Introduction (1st ed. 1861), 304–310; and Hoskier’s A Full Collation of Ev. 604, Appendix B, 1–14. Morphological information originated with Dr. Maurice Robinson’s editions of the Stephen’s Textus Receptus (1550) with Morphology and Scrivener’s Textus Receptus (1894) with Morphology.

Stephen’s Textus Receptus (1550) with Morphology (STV-TR)

• Editors: Robertus Stephanus and Maurice A. Robinson
• Publication Date: 1550

The Stephens 1550 Textus Receptus edition, with complete parsing information for all Greek words, as printed in the George Ricker Berry Interlinear Greek NT volume. Morphological analysis provided by Dr. Maurice A. Robinson. The Textus Receptus 1550 Greek text is best known as the basis for the King James Version or Authorized Version completed in the year 1611. This is a useful text for comparison for those with proficiency in Greek.

Biblia Sacra Vulgata, the Latin Vulgate (VUL)

• Publisher: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
• Publication Date: 1969

Jerome’s translation of the Greek and Hebrew Scriptures into the vulgar (common) tongue of his time: Latin. It was recognized as authoritative during the Council of Trent (1546) and became the official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church. The widespread use of the Vulgate is also recognizable in its influence in early modern Bible translations, such as the Authorized, or King James, Version. Since Jerome lived in the fourth century AD, the original text "developed" much as the Greek autographs did, with geographical variant readings, etc., and the modern edition is a critical text from these variant manuscripts, much as is the case with modern Greek texts. The Vulgate continues to be of scholarly use today in the study of the textual transmission of the Bible and in the historical study of Christian theology.

Biblia Sacra Vulgata: Psalmi iuxta Hebraicum et Varia Lectio (SESB)

• Editor: Robert Weber and Roger Gryson
• Publisher: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
• Publication Date: 1969

This resource contains the book of Psalms translated from the Hebrew, as well as a variant reading of IV Esdras 15:59–16:32. Both texts have been included along with this edition of the Vulgate for the purpose of comparison. In the electronic edition these texts have been created as an independent resource in order to use the comparison tools of Logos Bible Software. This volume only contains the variant reading and the Psalm translation, and does not contain the apparatus originally included with the print edition of the Vulgate—for the full edition, be sure to check out Vulgate with Apparatus.

Sahidica: The New Testament According to the Egyptian Greek Text

• Author: J. Warren Wells
• Publisher: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
• Publication Date: 2006

Sahidica: The New Testament According to the Egyptian Greek Text is a Greek version of the NT based on the CCAT lemmatized version of the United Bible Societies’ text. Its purpose is to provide a parallel Greek text from the Egyptian sources that most likely acted as the basis for the Sahidic version. Featuring uncial, all capitalized text, this simplified edition has been altered to correspond to the Sahidic only where there is support in the UBS apparatus. The simplification allows the student or researcher to better compare differences between the Sahidic and the standard Greek texts.

Sahidica: The New Testament According to the Sahidic Coptic Text

• Author: J. Warren Wells
• Publisher: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
• Publication Date: 2006

Sahidica: The New Testament According to the Sahidic Coptic Text is a complete edition of the Sahidic NT. Standing on the shoulders of the two most recent editions of the Sahidic NT (George Horner’s seven volume edition and the Packard Humanities Institute’s updated version of the same), this text amends the idiosyncrasies of the prior two editions to create the most complete and up-to-date Sahidic New Testament available. Featuring uniformity in spelling, punctuation and other usage as is found in standard Greek editions, the Sahidic text found in the Sahidic Coptic Collection is intended to be coherent, consistent, and easy-to-use. Standardization and simplicity was the goal, allowing the text to be valuable to students and instructors as well as translators and textual critics.

Bohairica: The New Testament According to the Bohairic Coptic Text

• Editor: J. Warren Wells
• Publisher: Logos Bible Software
• Publication Date: 2010

This Bohairic Coptic edition of the New Testament is based on the critical edition of Horner, and was prepared by J. Warren Wells. It is designed to be used alongside the resources of the Sahidic Coptic Collection, which were also prepared by Mr. Wells. Featuring uniformity in spelling, punctuation and other usage as is found in standard Greek editions, the Bohairic text found in this edition of the New Testament is intended to be coherent, consistent, and easy-to-use. Standardization and simplicity was the goal, allowing the text to be valuable to students and instructors as well as translators and textual critics.

Critical editions of the Greek New Testament (e.g. NA27, UBS4; also Metzger’s Textual Commentary) regularly cite Bohairic Coptic editions in the apparatus; such citation points to areas where the Bohairic Coptic either strengthens or challenges the form of the text. In such instances, Bohairica: The New Testament According to the Bohairic Text provides a source to confirm and evaluate such readings in their whole context.

Old Syrian Gospels: Codex Curetonianus

Codex Curetonianus is one of two surviving Old Syriac manuscripts. It dates to the late fifth century. It was recovered in 1842 and contains most of the text of the synoptic gospels.

Old Syrian Gospels: Codex Sinaiticus

Codex Sinaiticus is one of two surviving Old Syriac manuscripts. It dates to the late fourth century. It was recovered in the 1890s and contains most of the text of the synoptic gospels.

The Leiden Peshitta

The Syriac Peshitta of the Old and New Testament originated during the first centuries of the Christian era, and has been used ever since in the non-western churches of Syrian signature. Much like the Greek translations of the Old Testament, this ancient version is an important source for our knowledge of the textual traditions behind the biblical text. In contrast to the manuscripts of most Hebrew traditions, which date from the beginning of the Middle Ages, the extant Syriac manuscripts date from the fifth century. Some New Testament scholars argue for Aramaic as the original language of portions of the New Testament, and similarities between Aramaic and the Syriac of the Peshitta lead these scholars to encourage the study of the Peshitta.

This edition of the Old and New Testament was prepared at the Peshitta Institute in Leiden, and has become the standard Syriac edition. A. Ceriani’s photolithographic edition of 1876 serves as the basis for the Leiden Peshitta.

Rahlfs’ Septuagint with Logos Morphology

• Author: Alfred Rahlfs
• Publisher: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
• Publication Date: 2006

The Septuagint (commonly abbreviated "LXX") is a Greek translation of the Old Testament. Today, more than 2,000 years after the Septuagint was completed, we can see how Hebrew terms and concepts were translated into Greek for use by Hellenistic Jews. This provides insight to students of the whole Bible, both the Old and New Testaments. Old Testament scholars can garner a better understanding of how the Old Testament was understood and practiced based on the translation into Greek. New Testament scholars gain access to a version of the Old Testament comparable to what the New Testament writers used. Linguists can embark on grammatical studies, to compare Septuagint usage of a term with New Testament usage.

The morphology tagging in this edition of the LXX, prepared by Logos Bible Software, integrates with other resources tagged with the Logos morphology, making it possible to perform searches across numerous morphologically tagged texts such as the New Testament, Pseudepigrapha, Apostolic Fathers, Philo, and Josephus. This allows for ease of comparison in examining the usage of various grammatical and morphological constructions across a variety of authors and Greek texts.

Brenton’s Septuagint: Greek Text

• Author: Lancelot Charles Lee Brenton
• Publisher: Samuel Bagster and Sons
• Publication Date: 1851
• Pages: 1,156

This volume contains the Greek text that Lancelot Charles Lee Brenton based his English translation from the Codex Vaticanus. One of the oldest and most important Greek manuscripts, it is named for its place of conservation—the Vatican library—where it has been kept since the fifteenth century.

Lexham Hebrew Bible with Morphology

• Publisher: Lexham Press
• Publication Date: 2014

The Lexham Hebrew Bible (LHB) is Logos’ own, in-house Hebrew Bible. As Logos branched out from only licensing content from publishers to also creating our own content, we needed a Hebrew Bible that we maintained to hang data on, since third party databases are moving targets and their use in derivative products is sometimes limited by licensing issues.

Because LHB is the Bible on which we base all of our in-house data projects, it has the best integration with the most Logos databases, including the Bible Knowledgebase (Biblical People, Biblical Places, etc.), the participant referent tagging (which tags things like who/what a pronoun refers to, or who the implied subject of a verb is), the Bible Sense Lexicon, the Hebrew Pronunciation audio clips, and more. It is also the Hebrew Bible that Logos’ interlinears and reverse interlinears are aligned to, as well as the Hebrew Discourse project, facilitating better sympathetic highlighting between these texts—highlight a word in one text and see the corresponding words highlighted in the others. LHB is also the database behind the Clause Search feature introduced in Logos 5.

LHB doesn’t replace the third party Hebrew databases: they all make important contributions. BHW, for example, has detailed textual notes comparing its text to Codex Leningradensis (L) and a number of important print editions, and its morphological tagging covers some features not currently tagged in LHB. The Andersen-Forbes Analyzed Text includes quite a bit of tagging for features like genre that are not tagged in LHB, and AFAT ties into a rich syntax database. BHS/SESB includes the critical apparatus from the print BHS that lists textual variants from other manuscripts and early versions. All of these editions complement each other well.

The Targums from the Files of the Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon Project

• Targumim and Fragments included: 65
• Publisher: Hebrew Union College
• Publication Date: 2004–2005

Logos Bible Software is proud to be partnering with the team of the Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon Project from the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio to release a Libronix Digital Library System edition of the Targumim. The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon Project (CAL), edited by Dr. Stephen A. Kaufman, is a new dictionary of ancient Aramaic covering all dialects of the language. The Logos edition of the Targums includes a comprehensive selection of Targums from the CAL files (listed below) as well as a Targum Lexicon generated as a subset of the larger CAL lexicon that includes every word in the Targum corpus.

Pay attention to the included Cairo Geniza Targumic Fragments for textual variants and alternative readings.

Book of Genesis in Hebrew, with Various Readings, Notes, Etc.

• Author: C. H. H. Wright
• Publisher: Williams and Norgate
• Publication Date: 1859
• Pages: 114

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

An astute overview of Genesis in the Hebrew translation with an emphasis on grammar, C. H. H. Wright’s practical Book of Genesis is packed with helpful references and notes to help beginning students and seasoned scholars of Hebrew get an enhanced understanding of Genesis in its original language.

Charles Henry Hamilton Wright (1836–1909) was born in Dublin an educated at Trinity College, Dublin. A prolific author and lecturer, Wright taught Hebrew in the Universities of Oxford, London, Manchester, and Wales.

St. Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians

• Author: Joseph Armitage Robinson
• Publisher: Macmillan and Co.
• Publication Date: 1903
• Pages: 314

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

St. Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians begins with a comprehensive introduction, which includes an outline of the book of Ephesians, along with a summary of Paul’s ministry and a brief history of the early Church. This volume is split into three resources: the Greek text compiled by Robinson himself; his own textual notes; and his translation and exposition of the text.

Joseph Armitage Robinson was born in 1858 in Somerset. He studied at Christ’s College at Cambridge, and was ordained in 1882. He served as Dean of Westminster Abbey from 1902–1911. Robinson died in 1933.

St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians: Greek Text

• Author: Charles J. Ellicott
• Publisher: Longmans, Green and Co.
• Publication Date: 1887
• Pages: 343

This volume contains only the Greek text assembled by Cambridge scholar and bishop C.J. Ellicott. For his verse-by-verse commentary and his English translation, check out Ellicott’s Commentaries on St. Paul’s Epistles (6 vols.).

St. Paul’s Epistles to the Galatians: Greek Text

• Author: Charles J. Ellicott
• Publisher: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green
• Publication Date: 1863
• Pages: 168

This volume contains only the Greek text assembled by Cambridge scholar and bishop C.J. Ellicott. For his verse-by-verse commentary and his English translation, check out Ellicott’s Commentaries on St. Paul’s Epistles (6 vols.).

St. Paul’s Epistles to the Ephesians: Greek Text

• Author: Charles J. Ellicott
• Publisher: Longmans, Green, and Co.
• Publication Date: 1884
• Pages: 192

This volume contains only the Greek text assembled by Cambridge scholar and bishop C.J. Ellicott. For his verse-by-verse commentary and his English translation, check out Ellicott’s Commentaries on St. Paul’s Epistles (6 vols.).

St. Paul’s Epistles to the Philippians, Colossians, and to Philemon: Greek Text

• Author: Charles John Ellicott
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication Date: 1865
• Pages: 278

This volume contains only the Greek text assembled by Cambridge scholar and bishop C.J. Ellicott. For his verse-by-verse commentary and his English translation, check out Ellicott’s Commentaries on St. Paul’s Epistles (6 vols.).

St. Paul’s Epistles to the Thessalonians: Greek Text

• Author: Charles J. Ellicott
• Publisher: W.F. Draper
• Publication Date: 1862
• Pages: 167

This volume contains only the Greek text assembled by Cambridge scholar and bishop C.J. Ellicott. For his verse-by-verse commentary and his English translation, check out Ellicott’s Commentaries on St. Paul’s Epistles (6 vols.).

The Gospel according to St Mark: Greek Text

• Author: Alfred A. Plummer
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication Date: 1914

Plummer’s Greek edition of the Gospel of Mark is his own compiled version of Mark from the second series of the Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges. For the accompanying commentary as well as the Greek text of the first series of the Cambridge Greek Testament, check out the Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges.

The Expositor’s Greek Testament, vol. 3: 2 Corinthians–Colossians: Greek Text

• Publisher: George H. Doran Company
• Pages: 547

Containing the Greek text of 2 Corinthians through Colossians, Expositor’s provides extensive notation on alternate versions of New Testament passages and links to manuscripts providing support and alternative words. This edition contains only the Greek text; for the English commentary by J.H. Bernard, Frederic Rendall, S.D.F. Salmond, H.A.A. Kennedy, and A.S. Peake, check out the full volume here.

Greek Text from A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel according to St. John, Volumes 1 & 2

• Author: J.H. Bernard
• Publisher: T&T Clark

Containing only the Greek text compiled by J.H. Bernard, this resource offers Bernard’s critical edition of the Gospel of John. For the full edition with commentary, you’ll want to see the International Critical Commentary: New Testament.

Greek Text from A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Revelation of St. John

• Author: R.H. Charles
• Publisher: T&T Clark

This resource contains only the Greek text of Revelation, giving us an early 20th century look at the reconstruction of Revelation using the sources R.H. Charles chose. See Revelation rebuilt from different ancient sources, and if his verse-by-verse commentary on the Greek text would interest you, pick it up in the International Critical Commentary: New Testament.

Papyrus Oxyrhynchus VIII 1080 from A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Revelation of St. John

• Author: R.H. Charles
• Publisher: T&T Clark

Compare other sources of the text of Revelation against Papyrus Oxyrhynchus VIII no. 1080, a fragment from the Oxyrhynchus Papyri collection discovered early in the 20th century. The fragment contains portions of Revelation chapters 3 through 4, and dates to around 350 AD. This resource contains only the Greek text of the fragment; for the rest of R.H. Charles’s commentary, check out the International Critical Commentary: New Testament.

Fleury Palimpsest of 1 John from a Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Johannine Epistles

• Author: A.E. Brooke
• Publisher: T&T Clark

Containing a brief Old Latin text of 1 John 1–3, this 6th-century manuscript comes from the Codex Floriacensis, used in A.E. Brooke’s commentary in the International Critical Commentary: New Testament series. This resource contains only the fragment; for the full English commentary, check out the International Critical Commentary product.

Old Latin Fragment of 3 John from Codex Bezae in a Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Johannine Epistles

• Author: A.E. Brooke
• Publisher: T&T Clark

This resource contains a brief Old Latin text of 3 John from the Codex Bezae and was used in A.E. Brooke’s commentary in the International Critical Commentary: New Testament series. This resource contains only the fragment; for the full English commentary, check out the International Critical Commentary product.

Old Latin Fragment of 1 John Quoted by Augustine from a Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Johannine Epistles

• Author: A.E. Brooke
• Publisher: T&T Clark

Containing a brief Old Latin fragment from Augustine’s work, this resource was used in A.E. Brooke’s commentary in the International Critical Commentary: New Testament series. This resource contains only the fragment; for the full English commentary, check out the International Critical Commentary product.

Freisingen Fragment of 1 John from a Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Johannine Epistles

• Author: A.E. Brooke
• Publisher: T&T Clark

The Freisingen manuscripts date to the 10th century, though they are most likely copies of text that may have originated as far back as the 8th century. This resource contains only the Freisingen fragment of 1 John, and not any of the other Freisingen manuscripts. For A.E. Brooks’s commentary on the Johannine Epistles, be sure to check out the International Critical Commentary: New Testament series.

The Book of Ruth in Hebrew, with a Critically-Revised Text

• Author: Charles H. H. Wright
• Publisher: Williams and Norgate
• Publication Date: 1897

This volume contains only the Hebrew text of Ruth and alternate texts throughout this Old Testament narrative. The critical commentary on the text comes as part of Wright’s commentary, The Book of Ruth in Hebrew.

From the Introduction: "The editor had two principle objects in view in commencing the present work, namely, in the first place, to exhibit a specimen of a minute collation of Hebrew MSS, embracing not only the variations with respect to the consonants, but also those with respect to the Masoretic vowels and accents . . . And, in the second place, he desired to supply junior students with such assistance as might be needful in their early attempts at translating Hebrew, while at the same time the requirements of advanced scholars were steadily borne in mind."

Contents:

Hebrew Text with Various Readings

The Targum with Various Readings

Mr. Wright's edition . . . is intended for those students who wish to be thoroughly grounded in the language. The commentary enters into the niceties of grammatical construction, and learners are also properly encouraged to familiarize themselves with the details of the Masoretic accentuation.

—The Westminster Review

Charles H. H. Wright (1836–1909) wrote commentaries on Daniel and Zechariah, as well as A Grammar of the Modern Irish Language.

The Original Hebrew of a Portion of Ecclesiasticus: Greek Text

• Author: A. E. Cowley, Adolf Neubauer
• Publisher: Claredon Press
• Publication Date: 1897

This volume contains the Greek version of Ben Sira’s proverbs preserved in Talmudic and Rabbinic literature. For the English translation and the commentary and introduction, check out Classic Commentaries and Studies on the Biblical Apocrypha / Deuterocanon (42 vols.).

The Original Hebrew of a Portion of Ecclesiasticus: Syriac Text

• Author: A. E. Cowley, Adolf Neubauer
• Publisher: Claredon Press
• Publication Date: 1897

This volume contains the Syriac version of Ben Sira’s proverbs preserved in Talmudic and Rabbinic literature. For the English translation and the commentary and introduction, check out Classic Commentaries and Studies on the Biblical Apocrypha / Deuterocanon (42 vols.).

The Original Hebrew of a Portion of Ecclesiasticus: Hebrew Text

• Author: A. E. Cowley, Adolf Neubauer
• Publisher: Claredon Press
• Publication Date: 1897

This volume contains the Hebrew version of Ben Sira’s proverbs preserved in Talmudic and Rabbinic literature. For the English translation and the commentary and introduction, check out Classic Commentaries and Studies on the Biblical Apocrypha / Deuterocanon (42 vols.).

Claredon Press has done great service to students by this publication of the Hebrew original of the fragment of Ecclesiasticus lately discovered in the East.

—London Quarterly Review

The Original Hebrew of a Portion of Ecclesiasticus: Vetus Latina

• Author: A. E. Cowley, Adolf Neubauer
• Publisher: Claredon Press
• Publication Date: 1897

This volume contains the Old Latin version of Ben Sira’s proverbs preserved in Talmudic and Rabbinic literature. For the English translation and the commentary and introduction, check out Classic Commentaries and Studies on the Biblical Apocrypha / Deuterocanon.

The Hebrew Text of Ben Sira: Hebrew Text

• Author: Calvin Alexander McRae
• Publisher: University of Toronto
• Publication Date: 1910

In The Hebrew Text of Ben Sira, Calvin Alexander McRae provides the Hebrew text of Ecclesiasticus 39:15 to 43:33. The commentary and English translation are provided along with this text in Classic Commentaries and Studies on the Apocrypha / Deuterocanon.

Calvin Alexander McRae was born in 1874 in the village of Erin, Ontario. While earning his MA, he studied Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, Arabic, and Assyrian, as well as these languages’ respective literatures. He also served as lecturer in Hebrew at the University of Trinity College, Toronto. The Hebrew Text of Ben Sira is the thesis he submitted to the University of Toronto for a Doctor of Philosophy.

The Hebrew Text, and Latin Version, of the Book of Solomon, Called Ecclesiastes: Latin Text

• Author: Theodore Preston
• Publisher: John W. Parker
• Publication Date: 1845

This volume contains only the critical Latin text of Ecclesiastes—for Preston’s English commentary on Ecclesiastes, as well as his Hebrew and English editions, check out Classic Commentaries and Studies on Ecclesiastes.

The Book of Jonah in Four Semitic Versions: Syriac Text

• Author: W. Wright
• Publisher: Williams and Norgate
• Publication Date: 1857

Wright’s Syriac text provides the whole book of Jonah in a critical format with alternate readings. For his commentary, as well as his Chaldee, Arabic, and Aethiopic versions, check out Classic Commentaries and Studies on the Minor Prophets.

Psalms of the Pharisees, Commonly Called the Psalms of Solomon: Greek Text

• Authors: Herbert Edward Ryle and Montague Rhodes James
• Publisher: University Press
• Publication Date: 1891

The Greek text of the Psalms of Solomon from the Old Testament Apocrypha is compiled by various critical editions of the Greek Psalms of Solomon. The English translation and commentary are provided in separate volumes in Classic Commentaries and Studies on the Biblical Apocrypha / Deuterocanon.

The Book of Isaiah according to the Septuagint (Codex Alexandrinus), vol. 2 (Greek Text)

• Author: Richard R. Ottley
• Publisher: University Press
• Publication Date: 1906

Volume two of The Book of Isaiah According to the Septuagint includes the entire Greek text of Isaiah from the Codex Alexandrinus, but the full commentary with notes and textual variants can be purchased as part of the Works of Richard R. Ottley.

Future commentators on Isaiah, as well as present preachers, will be wise to consult both volumes frequently.

—The Expository Times

The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition (SBL)

• Editor: Michael W. Holmes
• Publishers: Society of Biblical Literature and Lexham Press
• Publication Date: 2010
• Pages: 517

The Society of Biblical Literature, in keeping with its mission to foster biblical scholarship, is pleased to sponsor, in association with Lexham Press, a new, critically edited edition of the Greek New Testament. The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition (SBLGNT), which is freely available in electronic form, will be useful to students, teachers, translators, and scholars in a wide variety of settings and contexts.

This new critical text has additional benefits as well. The text of the SBLGNT is based on a thorough examination of the major critical editions, apparatuses, and manuscript discoveries and the apparatus provides an accessible and easy to use look at textual variants. The sight of numerous manuscripts listed in any critical apparatus can be overwhelming (regardless of whether it's that of Alford, Tischendorf, Tregelles, or the even the NA27 and UBS4). Often even seasoned scholars struggle to know how to weigh the evidence before them. This reality becomes clear when we find that even major technical commentaries scarcely do more than list the manuscript evidence with little or no discussion of their significance. But because the SBLGNT's apparatus cites other critical editions rather than specific manuscripts, users have instant access to how the some of the greatest text-critical minds of the past two centuries have weighed the evidence and their resulting conclusions. The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition becomes even more valuable with the ability to examine its text right beside any of the dozens of Greek editions  that you might own in Logos Bible Software.

Textual apparatuses can be excellent tools. They do an incredible job of densely packing a large amount of information into a small portion of the printed page. They contain information that is incredibly valuable to the specialist. But the compact nature, abbreviations and symbols take time and effort to master.

Using a minimum amount of symbols and abbreviations, the apparatus for the SBLGNT gathers some of the most well known textual critics of the past and present (Tregelles, Westcott and Hort, Robinson and Pierpont, those responsible for the Greek text behind the NIV, and those responsible for the NA27/UBS4 text) and records where they agree and where they take different readings. In this way, it is very similar to the apparatus that the Nestle text had for its first twelve editions (1898–1927).

The editions represented in the SBLGNT apparatus form a rough spectrum from Robinson-Pierpont as a representative of the Byzantine text, to Tregelles which, while pre-papyri, was one of the first to break from the Byzantine, to Westcott and Hort (including the great uncials but little papyri) to the NIV Greek text and the NA text which have the benefit of available papyri. The sorts of differences that end up in the SBLGNT apparatus are:

• Likely to be represented in an English translation. The KJV, of course, uses a more Byzantine Greek source. The NIV and NA do not. Several other NT translations (ESV, NLT, NET, etc.) actually have their own underlying Greek text with some degree of difference from the NA27, most of the divergences in those would also be accounted for with readings given in the SBLGNT. This range of information gives the person preaching/teaching/exegeting the passage familiarity with options their pupils or parishioners may have represented in their translations.
• Given the “spectrum” of the editions, the variant info might quickly point out some more interesting variants. If the SBLGNT agrees with Westcott and Hort, Tregelles, and NIV/NA but disagrees with Robinson-Pierpont, it is likely a pretty standard difference with the Byzantine text. But if the SBLGNT's chosen reading is only present in Robinson-Pierpont or Tregelles then it might be more interesting and worth a deeper look into the specialist-oriented materials such as the UBS or NA apparatuses, technical commentaries such as ICC or Word Biblical Commentary, the Editio Critica Maior, Tischendorf, Comfort & Barrett, and the like.

No one apparatus is perfect for everyone. The NA27 apparatus gives manuscript-level information to those who require it. The UBS4 apparatus is geared towards translators. The SBLGNT apparatus complements these functions, pointing out readings of interest for further research, instead of competing with them.

The work of textual criticism is far from completed and there is always need for giving a hearing to fresh research and analysis. Thus, the existence of an alternative critical text—the SBLGNT differs from the standard text in more than 540 variation units—will help to remind readers of the Greek New Testament that the text-critical task must continue. Moreover, by reminding readers of the continuing need to pay attention to the variant readings preserved in the textual tradition, it may also serve to draw attention to a fuller understanding of the goal of New Testament textual criticism: both indentifying the earliest text and also studying all the variant readings for the light they shed on how particular individuals and faith communities adopted, used, and sometimes altered the texts that they read, studied, and transmitted.