Does anyone know of a good Apparatus that Logos has that is in English and easily understood?
Quoted from http://www.logos.com/training/apparatuses:
"Some Logos users might know exactly what to do with this information; others may need an additional source to help make sense of it. This is where Metzger's A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament comes in.
Metzger's Textual Commentary helps the user boil this information down into practical application. The apparatus only tells you that there is a variant and what the options are--it relies on the knowledge of the reader to realize why this is a significant variant. Metzger explains, in common English, why this is significant."
So, dependent upon your facility with the original languages (or lack thereof, as in my case), you may find Metzger's very useful.
Not really. There is Metzger's Textual Commentary and Holmes' Apparatus for the Greek New Testament SBL Edition, but Metzger doesn't deal with many matters while Holmes' edition gives other translations as a reference rather than citing the manuscript evidence itself. I don't know what the situation is with the SESB edition though I suspect it's much the same that comes with the NA 27 print edition (obviously, I don't have it). The most complete apparatus is that of Tischendorff which nearly requires an understanding of Latin.
Holmes' edition gives other translations as a reference rather than citing the manuscript evidence itself
Actually, Holmes' edition (SBLGNT) gives readings from other Greek editions, not from translations.
I think this all depends on how one defines what "a good apparatus" is. UBS4, and therefore Metzger, and therefore also Omanson's Textual Guide (which I believe is in an SESB configuration) are supposedly geared toward providing more extensive information on variations that have some import for translators, while the NA27 apparatus is geared toward providing information from 'consistently cited' uncial/minuscule/papyri/etc. for as many variations can be crammed on the bottom of the printed page.
It all depends on how deep down the rabbit hole you want to go. As George said, Tischendorf is more 'complete', but it is 100 years old and therefore missing much of the papyri data that has been discovered since its publication. If you are primarily worried about knowing the differences between modern translations and the KJV, then the SBLGNT might be all you're really looking for.
Defining "a good apparatus" largely involves knowing what you want to use the apparatus for. Do you want to know when the KJV has a different reading, or are you doing deep text-critical research on a given reading and want to know all the alternatives? Where you end up on the spectrum will probably determine the "good apparatus" you're looking for.
Michael, don't know if you're wanting detailed apparatus (which is in the above replies) vs a straight-forward discussion of a verse's translation / manuscripts. If it's the latter, Metzger covers the more arguable verses (NT only), while NET-Notes covers considerably more verses (and also the OT) but at a more user-friendly level. I usually have NET-Notes tracking my Bibles and then when a problem arises move over to Metzger and downward into the detailed apparatus.
If you want discussion and screen shots on each of the apparatus resources: http://wiki.logos.com/Resource_Review and then scroll down to the section showing the apparatus resources.
