Gospel Parallels

These are books that have the four gospels (sometimes five or more if they include Thomas or other non-canonical Bibles) arranged in vertical columns.  They allow you to see immediately how the different gospel writers have tweaked certain stories to fit in with the larger purposes of their particular gospels.

	Throckmorton, Burton H., Editor.  Gospel Parallels: A Comparison of the Synoptic Gospels/New Revised Standard Version.  5th Edition.  Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1992.  The standard parallel volume of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
	Funk, Robert W., Editor.  New Gospel Parallels.  Two Volumes.  Polebridge Press.  Out of print, but very useful in that it includes not only the synoptic gospels but also John and non-canonical gospels.

Not to be confused with:

Parallel Bibles

These are Bibles in which different translations are placed in columns next to each other for easy comparison.  A good example is The Complete Parallel Bible published by The American Bible Society, which includes the New Revised Standard Version, the Revised English Bible, the New American Bible and the New Jerusalem Bible.  Bible software and several websites mentioned above have made this kind of comparison easier than ever, however, and I would recommend that new students use them.