SBL GNT by Mike Holmes!

[ISalzman]

Jim, great job! But how were you able to get the Create Module Index tool to work so that you were able to create the CHM file of the Apparatus? Several posts above, you reported problems. How were you able to eventually get it to work?

[jdarlack]

Jim, great job! But how were you able to get the Create Module Index tool to work so that you were able to create the CHM file of the Apparatus? Several posts above, you reported problems. How were you able to eventually get it to work?

Thanks! I was able to get it to work with the help of Glenn Weaver from BW. I was not using the right 'booknames' file.

[jdarlack]

I just posted an update to the SBLGNT Apparatus. Michael Hanel had the brilliant idea of adding a search feature to the CHM file. Now you can search on different terms. For instance, you can search on "Holmes" to find all of the places where there is "a reading preferred by the editor [Michael Holmes] that is not found in any of the four primary editions."

DOWNLOAD updated CHM module. To install: unzip the files and copy to your \databases\ folder and restart BibleWorks.
DOWNLOAD the updated CHM module and version files together. To install: unzip the files and copy to your \databases\ folder and restart BibleWorks.

[ISalzman]

Thanks! I was able to get it to work with the help of Glenn Weaver from BW. I was not using the right 'booknames' file.

I am not surprised. Glenn is the absolute best! In Yiddish, we would call him a "mensch!" (A man of great integrity and personall worth!)

[pasquale]

Jim, Mike, great job....

I would try to build another apparatus module in chm format, I would insert after every verses the witness as a tooltip "show/hide witness".

I attach an experimental file (Matthew Cap 1-5 and Philemon).

I don't know if it is according the free license of SBLGNT. Advice me if it is unlawful.

saluti

pasquale

[Michael Hanel]

Jim, Mike, great job....

I would try to build another apparatus module in chm format, I would insert after every verses the witness as a tooltip "show/hide witness".

I attach an experimental file (Matthew Cap 1-5 and Philemon).

I don't know if it is according the free license of SBLGNT. Advice me if it is unlawful.

saluti

pasquale

Pasquale,

Wow, that's an amazing addition. The question about its legality depends on what the source of the witnesses is. Off the top of my head I don't recognize that information, is it based on Tischendorf or is it something more recent?

[DavidR]

I just wanted to add my thanks for the quick work that has produced the BW-ready files. It will be a few days before I have time to try them out, but I did want to note a few points.

• I hope there are plans for "official" inclusion of the SBLGNT in future updates of BW.
• I wonder if difficulties will arise because of the involvement (whatever exactly it is) of Logos in the SBLGNT project. Frankly, it annoys me that the SBL has chosen to affiliate itself with a commercial product in this way, implicitly endorsing Logos as a superior tool, which it is not. But given that affiliation, I hope obstacles will not be raised to BW's inclusion of the text in future updates.
• I have some doubts about the SBLGNT itself. It is not in any way the same kind of endeavor as the NA/UBS editions, or the WH and Tregelles editions on which it is partly based, since (as I understand it) its editor did not, for the most part, consult original MSS, but only the printed editions. And by giving (apparently) equal consideration to the 19th-century WH and Tregelles alongside NIV (and whatever attention is given to NA), it raises the question whether 20th-century advances in text criticism have really been given proper weight.

I stress that I say all this after only a cursory check of the sample and the introduction on the SBLGNT Website; but I think there are some valid questions here.

[Michael Hanel]

I just wanted to add my thanks for the quick work that has produced the BW-ready files. It will be a few days before I have time to try them out, but I did want to note a few points.

• I hope there are plans for "official" inclusion of the SBLGNT in future updates of BW.
• I wonder if difficulties will arise because of the involvement (whatever exactly it is) of Logos in the SBLGNT project. Frankly, it annoys me that the SBL has chosen to affiliate itself with a commercial product in this way, implicitly endorsing Logos as a superior tool, which it is not. But given that affiliation, I hope obstacles will not be raised to BW's inclusion of the text in future updates.
• I have some doubts about the SBLGNT itself. It is not in any way the same kind of endeavor as the NA/UBS editions, or the WH and Tregelles editions on which it is partly based, since (as I understand it) its editor did not, for the most part, consult original MSS, but only the printed editions. And by giving (apparently) equal consideration to the 19th-century WH and Tregelles alongside NIV (and whatever attention is given to NA), it raises the question whether 20th-century advances in text criticism have really been given proper weight.

I stress that I say all this after only a cursory check of the sample and the introduction on the SBLGNT Website; but I think there are some valid questions here.

I am not altogether enthusiastic about the SBLGNT, but I think it is good that others be able to see the text and make decisions about it. The creators of it claim that it shouldn't be compared to NA27, but that is effectively what it is attempting to replace. The problem has been that there hasn't been a "critical" text of the Greek New Testament that people could use for free. The German Bible Society does not allow its text to be used freely on websites, for example. *Ideally* the answer to this would have been a textual license like that of the Tregelles project which was this. Here's my main problem with the SBLGNT license:

If you give away the SBLGNT for use with a commercial product or sell a print or electronic work containing more than 500 verses from the SBLGNT, you must annually report the number of units sold, distributed, and/or downloaded to the Society of Biblical Literature’s Rights and Permissions Office.

If a product is free to distribute, then whose interest is being served by this process? For the unofficial BibleWorks blog, we had to set up a new system to count downloads (normally we don't count downloads because we have no reason to, we're not selling anything or serving any marketing programs). I don't know what licenses of commercial products typically look like. They might include clauses like this, but for a free text, this is one restriction that seems odd to say the least and I have a hunch it might prevent wider adoption. Do you think other Bible programs want to share their marketing information with Logos (which is essentially what this clause implies)? On the Evangelical Textual Criticism blog, I noticed that Rick Bennett of Accordance voiced his disappointment that this project was not one that was shared with other Bible companies, but a joint project between SBL and Logos. I too think that this is rather disappointing. If it's Logos' product, then it should be called theirs, but if SBL is involved in it, then why should they support one company over the other rather than trying to get them all to sit down at one table. Maybe I'm just being too idealistic...

As for the text itself. Only time will tell whether the scholarly community gives a thumbs up or thumbs down to it. It's far too early to know. My main critique of it is that it only necessitates further knowledge of the texts it used (the NA27, WH, NIV, and Tregelles) because it wasn't a text made from the ground up, examining manuscripts themselves, it was made by comparing these critical texts. I don't think that's a sound methodology for making the most accurate text, but if this text didn't set out to be accurate, then I suppose that's all a moot point.

As far as textual criticism goes, what's needed is not more critical texts but better access to the manuscripts on which versions like the NA27 draw upon.

[Lee]

A big thank you to Jim and the others who have made this available. I don't know that I was that interested in having the text, but the apparatus provides a different approach that should be helpful from time to time.

[jdarlack]

I’ve posted a new version of the SBLGNT Apparatus Module.

This update fixes a problem in Matthew 16, where headings were incorrectly labeled and indexed.

DOWNLOAD! To install, unzip and copy to your \databases\ folder (overwrite all old files).

Thanks to Pasquale for the error report! Please do report any errors that come along.