Thursday, June 09, 2011

Review of SBL Greek New Testament







SBL-WH 6,049
SBL-Treg 5,701
SBL-NIV 6,312
SBL-RP 969

SBL-WH 879
SBL-Treg 1,227
SBL-RP 5,959
















Matthew 15:14 ὁδηγοί τυφλῶν
Matthew 15:15 παραβολήν ταύτην
Matthew 21:15 Δαυίδ ἠγανάκτησαν
Matthew 26:36 Γεθσημανὶ,
Mark 4:2 πολλά καὶ
Mark 7:27 γάρ καλόν
Mark 14:72 δίς ἀπαρνήσῃ (apparatus)
Mark 15:14 κακόν ἐποίησεν (apparatus)
Luke 1:21 αὐτόν ἐν (apparatus)
Luke 1:27 Δαυὶδ,
Luke 2:51 Ναζαρὲθ,
Luke 5:1 Γεννησαρὲτ,
Luke 8:20 ἰδεῖν σε θέλοντές.
Luke 18:5 αὐτήν ἵνα
John 6:71 αὐτόν παραδιδόναι (apparatus)
John 7:34 εὑρήσετέ,
John 7:36 εὑρήσετέ,
John 7:42 Δαυὶδ, (2×)
John 10:29 μεῖζων ἐστιν
John 21:24 ἐστίν ἡ (apparatus)
Acts 2:29 Δαυὶδ,
Acts 3:25 Ἀβραάμ Καὶ
Acts 10:29 μεταπεμφθείς πυνθάνομαι
Acts 13:43 ἔπειθον· αὐτοὺς
1 Cor 14:37 ἐστὶν·
1 Tim 6:19 αἰωνιόυ (apparatus)
Titus 3:13 ζηνᾶν τὸν νομικὸν
Hebrews 2:26 ὅς οἶκός ἐσμεν
James 2:11 εἰπών Μὴ ... καί Μὴ
2 Peter 2:10 Τολμηταὶ,
Rev 9:11 Ἀβαδδών καὶ




  1. Thanks for the review. I do wish the printed text was more convenient to carry around than the NA27, which is less convenient than its predecessors.

    I do have to quibble about one aspect of your review. There really isn't a "NA/UBS tradition" as far as the paragraphing is concerned. Although their text has been conformed to one another, their segmentation of that text into paragraphs and other units has not.

    As a result, it might better to substitute UBS4 for NA27 in your statement: "These factors together explain the significant family resemblance which SBLGNT has to NA27."

  2. PJW: "It is a full centimetre higher and wider than NA27 and weighs 94g more"

    As with his review of the RP 2005 edition, Dr Williams (and apparently Dr Carlson) simply doesn't like large size Greek New Testaments, presumably because they are not as handy or lightweight as the pocket-sized editions.

    However...some of us older people with trifocal eyesight really do need the larger print editions, and we are still capable of lifting a few pounds of Bible as need might require in order to reap this benefit....

    Apparently I am not alone: cf. the "I like big bibles" Music Video.

  3. Erratum:

    Hebrews 2:26 ὅς οἶκός ἐσμεν | Hebrews 3:6

  4. I'm with Maurice. Us old guys like big print. I love my big print NA27 (mind you I would like it even more if I hadn't left it on the window sill during a rain storm, but that is another story).

  5. I don't share Maurice's enthusiasm for big bibles, but I give him full credit for the video link!

  6. Has anyone compiled a list of agreements and disagreements between SBL and NA27/UBS4, as listed for the other editions? That would be helpful in seeing just how closely related it is to the NA27/UBS4 text.

  7. Thanks, Michael.

    Maurice, I wonder whether the video is more about promoting big Bibles as part of a mating ritual.

    I think that the 20th century probably witnessed a drift in descriptions of the Nestle editions from Taschenausgabe to Handausgabe (don't try to fit them in your pocket anymore!).

    The SBLGNT font is probably very marginally larger than that in NA27, but much of the extra space is taken up with larger interline spacing. Many words are actually the same length in mm in both editions, including, arguably the longest word in the GNT in Acts 10:41, where, ignoring the hyphen, both come out around 32mm (RP 36mm). SBLGNT has the edge on letter height.

    NA27 is (depending how you count) somewhat in excess of 920 pages against SBLGNT around 540 pages, but NA27 has detailed appendices and maps. Yet NA27 still manages to be lighter than SBLGNT because it's on thinner paper. My brief review of Amazon prices suggests that you could easily pay more for SBLGNT than for NA27, though you could probably get one of the former for a few dollars less if you chose wisely.

    So with SBLGNT you're getting far less for your money.

    RP is different, because it's not seeking to provide competition for NA27 while having a very similar text. I'm sure RP is a lot easier to read for those with visual impairments, though I doubt whether the font in the apparatus of RP is any bigger than that in NA27. For apparatus font SBLGNT is probably the most legible, but the content of the apparatus is the least interesting.

  8. The SBLGNT is very welcome, without it I would not have been able to include the Greek text in my NIV84/TNIV/NIV2011 comparison site.

  9. As many have noted, church and Bible study sessions can be a good place to meet future spouses....but I only cited the video as satire, and not to promote matchmaking (I met my wife on a blind date to the beach, so that point doesn't apply in my case anyway).

    My main point relates only to larger print readability (which simply doesn't exist for me in the Taschenbuch or Handausgabe formats, and I don't want to carry a magnifying sheet if I don't have to).

  10. I've converted the SBLGNT to the Kindle format. You can choose whatever font size you like.