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A unique resource for biblical and literary scholars will be made available later this year by CD-Rom publisher Chadwyck-Healey.

Twelve editions of the Bible, seven texts of the New Testament and two texts of the Gospels will be combined and cross-referenced on a single compact disk entitled "The Bible in English".

The Bible in English is edited by Professor Gerald Hammond of the University of Manchester. It includes English translations of the Bible spanning 1000 years. Not only the Authorised Version, but all the major Tudor versions are included in the database.

The contents of the disk will be encoded in SGML, the Standard Generalised Markup Language.

SGML is an international standard, ISO 8879. It uses special symbols or "tags" to encode the logical structure of a text. Text elements such as chapters and verses are marked with tags.

Researchers will be able to search and manipulate the files on the Bible disk, using standard SGML editing software.