The Text Comparison Tool allows you to compare multiple texts to quickly spot similarities and differences. Even if you’ve never studied the original biblical languages and the discussion of lemmas and clause structures is all Greek to you, this tool is indispensable for your biblical study.
With Text Comparison you can quickly see how different texts and translations handle the passage you’re studying, which will help you get a sense of the different ways the original languages can be translated and ultimately give you a greater understanding of Scripture.
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Note: This feature is available to all users.
Desktop/Web
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There are several ways to open the Text Comparison Tool, three from within the text itself and one from the main toolbar.
Select the verse you want to compare. In the Selection Menu, select the Text Comparison icon .
Right-click a word in the verse you want to compare. Select either Selection or Reference in the left-hand column of the Context Menu. In the right-hand column, click Text Comparison to open the Text Comparison tool in a new panel.
Logos opens the Text Comparison tool using the current (or most recent) active version as your base text.
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Note: To quickly change your base text version, open a Bible in your desired version and re-open the Text Comparison tool.
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Click the blue link displaying your version to the right of the reference box.
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Choose your desired comparison versions in one of these ways:
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Enter the version name/abbreviation in the Find box and check the box to the left of the version.
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Select a collection (e.g. Top Bibles). To learn more about creating and using Collections, see this article.
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Scroll down in the bottom half of the dropdown and select individual versions by checking the box to the left of each version you want to compare.
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Click Save. Logos displays your base text and selected versions. In the future, you can select your saved batch of versions from the dropdown. If you click outside the dropdown without clicking Save, Logos applies your selections in the Text Comparison tool but does not save these changes for later use.
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Click outside the version selection dropdown to close the dropdown and apply your changes.
Logos automatically optimizes your version display according to the panel size. Click the More Actions Menu icon to manually switch between vertical and horizontal (column) layouts.
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Note: Click any version abbreviation in the column heading to open the version to the passage in a new panel.
Clicking the Show differences icon displays the places where each comparison version differs from the base text. Words in black are the same as your base text. Words in blue are those which differ from your base text. Hover over any of the small red circles to display how your base text differs from the chosen translation. At the end of the verse, Logos displays the percentage of difference between a version and your base text.
Sometimes the differences are not particularly significant, such as differences in capitalization or punctuation, and the Comparison Tool provides the ability to ignore these if you wish.
You can do this using a combination of three options selected by clicking the More Actions Menu icon, providing the ability to ignore case, marks or punctuation.
Consider, for example, Romans 1:24 in both the NA27 and the Textus Receptus 1894. With none of the options selected, the Tool shows that the two texts are completely different.
But when we turn on Ignore marks, this results in just a 14% difference as the marks in NA27 (that are not present in the Textus Receptus) are discounted for comparison purposes.
If we also ignore Case we can focus on the actual textual differences between the texts.
Click the Show base text icon to display the base text along with a different version. Logos inserts the base text into a comparison version. Words in your base text that occur in the comparison version display in black. Words that are in your base text but not in the comparison version display in gray with a line through them.
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Note: In order to activate Show base text, the Show differences button must be clicked first.
Click the dropdown menu to display your text as Verses or in an Interlinear format. Choosing Interlinear aligns the words of each selected version with the closest corresponding word in the base text. When this results in a different word order than the base text, Logos indicates the word order of the different version with superscript numbers preceding the word.
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Note: If you use an English version for your base text and an original language text for your comparison text, the Interlinear view alters the word order of the original language text to correspond to the word order in the base text. If you use an original language text as your base text, the Interlinear view alters the word order of the comparison versions. (Learn more about other interlinear resources in Logos.)
Logos allows you to sync the Text Comparison tool with an open Bible. When this feature is active, the Text Comparison tool automatically follows the location of the active Bible.
To activate this feature:
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Click the three vertical dots icon
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Select Follow.
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When you enter a new reference in the Reference box of your open Bible, the Text Comparison tool automatically displays the new active reference.
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Note: To completely link the Text Comparison tool with a resource, select one of the link set letters. Learn more about Link sets.
To disconnect a Bible version from the Text Comparison tool, click the three vertical dots icon and select None.
When the Text Comparison tool is in the Verses display mode, you can print or export the results from the Text Comparison Tool by clicking the More Actions Menu icon and selecting Print/Export. This allows you to send the current display to a printer or other application, such as a word processor or web page.
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Note: Logos prints/exports the text range displayed in the reference box. Edit this range by entering the passage you want to export into the reference box before selecting this option.
Mobile
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Change Bibles in the Text Comparison Tool
While you can open this tool from a few different locations, the quickest way to access it is from the Insights Panel. Double tap any verse to open the Insights Panel for that verse and then select Compare.
Another option is to open the tool from the Study section of the Study tab which will open a blank Comparison tool tab.
When you open Text Comparison, by default Logos displays the English text of your selected passage from each of your Top Bibles.
The first translation listed will be from your Top Bible, and each of the other translations will be compared to this text. Each translation will give a percentage of difference between it and your Top Bible; the higher the percentage, the greater the difference between the way the translations render your passage.
To open the passage in any of the listed Bibles, simply tap the translation name, and Logos will open a new tab to your passage in that translation.
You have two options for which group of texts appears in the Text Comparison Tool:
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Your Top Bibles
To swap between Top Bibles and a Collection:
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Tap the three parallel lines icon at the top right of the Text Comparison tool
and tap the currently selected comparison collection
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Select a different collection to change which versions are compared in the tool.
Changing which Bibles belong in this group is a straightforward process, but it must be done in the Logos desktop app. In the desktop app,
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Tap the Library icon
to open the panel (or drag it to dock it as a panel in your current layout).
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Click the three parallel lines icon
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Expand the Type filter and select Bible.
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Click the three vertical dots icon
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Drag at least five Bibles into the Prioritize Books pane and organize them with your preferred Bible first.
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Note: When using Top Bibles in Text Comparison on the mobile app, the tool will display your ten highest prioritized Bibles.
To create a Collection of your favorite Bibles (which also must be done in the Logos desktop app), open the Collections tool by clicking Tools, typing “Collection” in the search box, and clicking Collections. Click New in the top left to create a new collection of books and give the collection a name, like “Favorite Bibles.”
Enter the abbreviations or full titles of the Bibles you want to include in the Rule field, and then drag the Bible’s covers to the + Plus these books section. When you’re done, you will have created a collection of Bibles that only includes the translations you’ve selected.
Once you've created the Collection in the desktop app, it will appear in the mobile app and be available for use in the Text Comparison Tool.