Compare
Gospels
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Four Gospel Comparison

Beta

Prepared by Taylor Halverson, Ph.D.

367 pericopes in 18 sections, arranged in the sequence standard to gospel comparisons since the nineteenth century: the synoptic narrative order, with John’s material set beside it where the two run together and in its own sections where they do not.

Every pericope title, section heading, study question and note here is written for this tool. Passage boundaries have been checked against Burton and Goodspeed’s Harmony of the Synoptic Gospels in Greek (1920) and Huck’s Synopse der drei ersten Evangelien (1892), both long out of copyright; where this comparison divides the text differently, the pericope says so.

Beta

Pericope divisions, parallel assignments and Restoration links are still being reviewed. Where the underlying comparison is itself odd — a reference that looks like a typo, a section that duplicates another, a citation that reaches outside its gospel — the pericope carries a Note saying so rather than quietly correcting it. Where the gospels themselves order an event differently — the cleansing of the temple early in John and late in the synoptics, the dating of the anointing at Bethany, whether the last supper was the Passover, the hour of the crucifixion — a Chronology & context panel states the difference and the usual explanations instead of harmonizing it away.

On the comparison

Agreement is measured on phrases, not stray words: a word counts as shared only when it sits inside a two-word run the other account also contains. Percentages describe verbal overlap in a single English translation — they are a reading aid, not a text-critical judgment.

How to use it

The four gospels stand side by side in fixed columns, always in the same order, so your eye learns where to look. Everything else is a way of asking a question about that layout.

Finding a passage
The index down the left holds all 367 pericopes in 18 sections. Click a section to open it and jump to its first pericope.
Search matches pericope titles as you type, and also takes a citation — Mark 9:2, Luke 15, John 11:35 — and opens the pericope that contains it.
Weekly Reading narrows the whole index to one week’s reading, and the pericope you land on shows its week.
← and → (or J and K) step through pericopes; / jumps to the search box, B bookmarks, H opens the handout, Esc closes. Press ? for the full list.
The address bar tracks where you are — #p=158&week=12 — so any pericope can be linked or bookmarked.
Texts
This edition presents the {{ transList }} text of all four Gospels, bundled with the app so it loads without a network request.
Gospels (Mt · Mk · Lk · Jn) drops a column out of the comparison. Turn two off to read Matthew against Mark alone, or to fit two columns on a tablet without sideways scrolling. Agreement, percentages and the summary are always measured across the columns you can see.
Restoration-scripture parallels are not displayed in this edition. When a curated connection exists, the project may identify the reference without reproducing proprietary scripture text.
Author voice prints one line under each heading on that writer’s characteristic emphasis — useful when a class is asking why the accounts differ at all.
Verse nos. hides the numbers when you would rather read continuous prose.
Comparing
English phrase overlap (formerly labeled "Agreement") tints every shared phrase by how many gospels have it — one, two, or all three others — and underlines in oxblood the words found in no other column here. This is a reading aid about English wording, not a judgment about sources, Greek textual variants, or event identity.
Unique only strips the shared material away so a gospel’s own contribution stands alone.
Base text measures every column against one gospel. Click a gospel’s heading to make it the base; click it again to release.
Hover a verse and the closest parallel verse in the other columns lifts with it.
The bars above the columns give verbal overlap for each pair, highest first; Look for this offers observation questions — things to notice, not answers to find.
Off returns plain, unmarked text for straight reading.
Keeping your work

Bookmarks, notes, and your comparison mode are saved on this device, so the comparison reopens where you left it. Notes and bookmarks remain on this device; scripture text is bundled locally, though web fonts are still requested from the third-party services named in Credits. On a tablet or phone the columns stack and the index becomes a drawer behind ☰.

Credits

What follows records who made what, which editions the text is drawn from, and how the work may be cited.

Editorial work
The 367 pericope divisions, their titles, the 18 section headings, the study questions, the chronology and context notes, the author-voice summaries and the Restoration cross-references were written and compiled for this edition by Taylor Halverson, Ph.D.
Passage boundaries were collated against Ernest DeWitt Burton and Edgar Johnson Goodspeed, A Harmony of the Synoptic Gospels in Greek (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1920), and Albert Huck, Synopse der drei ersten Evangelien (Freiburg, 1892). Where this comparison divides the text differently, the pericope records the difference.
Later critical Gospel harmonies were consulted in the course of the work, chiefly Kurt Aland, Synopsis Quattuor Evangeliorum (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1963 and later editions), and Burton H. Throckmorton, Gospel Parallels (1949).
Biblical text
World English Bible — a modern revision of the American Standard Version, released into the public domain by Michael Paul Johnson and eBible.org. The text is public domain; eBible.org identifies the name "World English Bible" itself as a trademark — see the official copyright notice.
Chapter text for the World English Bible is bundled with this edition and loads without a network request. This paid-beta edition presents the World English Bible only; the American Standard Version and Greek (Tischendorf) text are not included in this build.
Weekly Reading
Restoration-scripture parallels (Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price) are not included in this edition. That text is proprietary to Intellectual Reserve, Inc. and is not freely available for commercial use.
The in-app Weekly Reading feature follows the Come, Follow Me New Testament curriculum’s weekly schedule. Come, Follow Me is a trademark of Intellectual Reserve, Inc. and a study curriculum of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, used here strictly for educational reference and lesson alignment. This Four Gospel Comparison Project is an independent educational study aid created by Taylor Halverson, Ph.D. It is not created, provided, approved, endorsed by, or affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Intellectual Reserve, Inc., or any other formal ecclesiastical entity.
Typography
EB Garamond — Georg Duffner and Octavio Pardo, after the sixteenth-century types of Claude Garamont.
Gentium Book Plus — Victor Gaultney, SIL International.
IBM Plex Sans — Mike Abbink with Bold Monday, for IBM.
All three are released under the SIL Open Font License, version 1.1.
Disclaimer
This software is provided "as is," without warranty of any kind, express or implied. The English phrase-overlap comparison tool is an automated reading aid designed to highlight textual proximity in the selected translation; it does not represent definitive text-critical judgments, source-critical reconstructions, or historical event identities. Users are encouraged to consult primary scriptural texts and recognized scholarly commentaries for advanced study.
This report and edition remain in beta. Project Created by Taylor Halverson, Ph.D. (Beta mode)
Rights
The World English Bible is dedicated to the public domain. No licensed or proprietary text is used in this edition.
The Come, Follow Me curriculum remains the intellectual property of Intellectual Reserve, Inc. This edition uses only its dates and scripture ranges for schedule alignment; the week labels shown are project-authored summaries, not the official lesson titles, and this tool is not produced by, affiliated with, or endorsed by the curriculum’s publisher.
The editorial matter of this comparison — divisions, titles, headings, questions and notes — is © 2026 Taylor Halverson. All rights reserved.
Citation
Halverson, Taylor. Four Gospel Comparison. Beta edition. 2026. Cite a passage by its pericope number, e.g. ¶158.
Percentages of agreement describe verbal overlap within a single English translation. They are a reading aid, not a text-critical judgment.
Your bookmarks and notes

Notes live in this browser on this device. Export them before you switch machines, and import to merge them back — prepare on a laptop, teach from a tablet.

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