Alford's Greek Testament VS English Reader's Testament?

Liam Walsh said:

I don't know NT Greek but I can hack it if necessary with dictionaries. Are there big peices I would miss out on if I was to get the NT for English Readers (I like getting all the info I can in commentaries)? Would I be able to navigate the GT (I'll always have it open with an English Bible) or should I just settle for the English?

The commentary part of both resources is almost identical, except that Greek is translated in the English version (see the screenshot below), discussion of Greek syntax is removed, and some of the links, particularly to Church Fathers, are absent. So the quote from Piper probably applies to both versions. Alford himself says in the English edition: "The notes are mainly an adaptation and abridgment of those in my Edition of the Greek Testament. Additions are sometimes made to those notes, where further explanations, of a nature suitable to the English reader, seemed to be required."

But whilst there's little difference between the two commentaries, with the Greek Testament you also get a detailed Critical Apparatus and a very detailed GNT that's literally stuffed full of cross references (several cross references per sentence).

If you just want the commentary, then the English edition is probably the better buy, but I suspect that because Piper has mentioned "grammatical or syntactical" problems, he's very likely referring to the Greek edition, because discussion of grammar and syntax tend to be the things Alford abridges in the English edition. I ran a quick search on Alford in my John Piper books, and he always refers to the Greek edition.

Liam Walsh said:

Mark, just curious, how did you get your favorite Bibles to appear on the top of your page like they are in the screen shot? I'm on a mac, and not sure if I can do it, but it looks handy!

That's the shortcut bar, and you can drag pretty much anything up there. It's best to drag resources there from the library or command box.

Liam Walsh said:

Pretty cool! Is there any way to put a commentary set up in the shortcut bar and not just an individual book?

No, sorry. You'd have to put one volume of the commentary on the bar, then navigate to the correct place once it opened (e.g. put Genesis on the bar, then type John 3 into the Genesis commentary once it was opened).