January 10, 2016
This comparison includes four digital copies; MoellerHaus Publisher website, Kindle eBook, Muqaddas website and Northwest College of the Bible website. None of the bibles are complete.
Missing words, missing verses, and missing chapters are obviously the main concern. But the lack of uniformity, spelling, punctuation, broken links and malformed HTML are also issues.
None of the digital copies are identical. Although all the website bibles look and feel very much alike, none are the same. The Kindle bible is very similar to the MoellerHaus website content, and Muqaddas and Northwest College are very much the same as well.
The MoellerHaus bible reads well. The free website reader, although maybe a bit dated and lacking features, is fast and lacks distractions (ads). This bible could be a great addition if issues are corrected and distributed amongst sites that use the app. Corrections need to include the use of HTML classes for different elements (book headings, chapter headings, verse numbers, verse text, comments etc.), and HTML code verification. A clean source copy will make it easy to update the Kindle eBook.
This is not a comparison of the Moellerhaus version with the KJV. Yet it appears Moellerhaus does not always as strictly adhere to the original KJV as some other new KJV translations:
Example, 2 Timothy 3:16:
| Moellerhaus | All scripture given by inspiration of God, is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness |
| KJVCPE | All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: |
| KJ2000 (Couric) | All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: |
Broken links prevent the reader from accessing the books of Genesis and Ruth on the Northwest College website. Genesis chapter 7 is replaced by a copy of chapter 8.
The cleanest copy is found on the publishers' home website. The Northwest College copy is in the worst shape. Formatting is the most uniform in the Kindle eBook.
Digital bible content was scraped from the internet sites and verse by verse saved in Microsoft SQL Server. The Kindle eBook was read and saved in a similar way. The four copies were then compared, and differences outputted in table format.
This is a sample of the first few verses of the book of Genesis:
| ID | VERSE | SOURCE | TEXT |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GEN 1:2 |
kindle | And the earth was shapeless and formless and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters. |
| moellerhaus | And the earth was shapeless and formless and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters. | ||
| muqaddas | And the earth was without shapeless and formless; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters. | ||
| ncbible | And the earth was without shapeless and formless; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters. | ||
| 2 | GEN 1:3 |
kindle | And God said, Let there be light and there was light. |
| moellerhaus | And God said, Let there be light and there was light. | ||
| muqaddas | And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. | ||
| ncbible | And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. | ||
| 3 | GEN 1:4 |
kindle | And God saw the light that it was good and God divided the light from the darkness. |
| moellerhaus | And God saw the light that it was good and God divided the light from the darkness. | ||
| muqaddas | And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. | ||
| ncbible | And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. | ||
| 4 | GEN 1:5 |
kindle | And God called the light day and he called the darkness night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. |
| moellerhaus | And God called the light day and he called the darkness night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. | ||
| muqaddas | And God called the light Day and he called the darkness Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. | ||
| ncbible | And God called the light Day and he called the darkness Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. | ||
| 5 | GEN 1:9 |
kindle | And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together into one place and let the dry land appear and it was so. |
| moellerhaus | And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together into one place and let the dry land appear and it was so. | ||
| muqaddas | And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together into one place and let the dry land appear: and it was so. | ||
| ncbible | And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together into one place and let the dry land appear: and it was so. | ||
| 6 | GEN 1:10 |
kindle | And God called the dry land Earth and he called the gathering together of the waters Seas and God saw that it was good. |
| moellerhaus | And God called the dry land Earth and he called the gathering together of the waters Seas and God saw that it was good. | ||
| muqaddas | And God called the dry land Earth; and he called the gathering together of the waters Seas: and God saw that it was good. | ||
| ncbible | And God called the dry land Earth; and he called the gathering together of the waters Seas: and God saw that it was good. | ||
| 7 | GEN 1:11 |
kindle | And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed and the fruit tree yielding fruit on the earth after its kind, whose seed is in itself and it was so. |
| moellerhaus | And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed and the fruit tree yielding fruit on the earth after its kind, whose seed is in itself and it was so. | ||
| muqaddas | And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit on the earth after its kind, whose seed is in itself,: and it was so. | ||
| ncbible | And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit on the earth after its kind, whose seed is in itself,: and it was so. | ||
This comparison for the first few verses of the book of Genesis shows consistent alignment between Kindle / MoellerHaus, and Muqaddas / Northwest College.
The issues identified are:A full comparison with all 4 sources generated discrepancies in over 20,000 verses. A comparison test ignoring punctuation and casing still generated 9,000 verses (one-quarter of the bible), with each verse having one or more issues. Therefore the further comparison is limited to Kindle / MoellerHaus copies.
Notes and verse references were removed for the comparison. Random notes between verses, inconsistent verse numbering and bad HTML made this a very challenging comparison. Some of the discrepancies indicated in the table are not relevant due remaining notes.
Verse numbering is inconsistent