Critical Text, Textus Recptus, and Majority - an Example Collation

NA28	Beza 1598	Hodges-Farstad (Majority)
31Ἦν δὲ ἄνθρωπος ἐκ τῶν Φαρισαίων, Νικόδημος ὄνομα αὐτῷ, ἄρχων τῶν Ἰουδαίων· 2οὗτος ἦλθεν πρὸς αὐτὸν νυκτὸς καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ· ῥαββί, οἴδαμεν ὅτι ἀπὸ θεοῦ ἐλήλυθας διδάσκαλος· οὐδεὶς γὰρ δύναται ταῦτα τὰ σημεῖα ποιεῖν ἃ σὺ ποιεῖς, ἐὰν μὴ ᾖ ὁ θεὸς μετ’ αὐτοῦ. 3ἀπεκρίθη [] Ἰησοῦς καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ· ἀμὴν ἀμὴν λέγω σοι, ἐὰν μή τις γεννηθῇ ἄνωθεν, οὐ δύναται ἰδεῖν τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ.	31ην δε ανθρωπος εκ των φαρισαιων νικοδημος ονομα αυτω αρχων των ιουδαιων 2ουτος ηλθεν προς τον ιησουν νυκτος και ειπεν αυτω ραββι οιδαμεν οτι απο θεου εληλυθας διδασκαλος ουδεις γαρ [] ταυτα τα σημεια δυναται ποιειν α συ ποιεις εαν μη η ο θεος μετ αυτου 3 απεκριθη ο ιησους και ειπεν αυτω αμην αμην λεγω σοι εαν μη τις γεννηθη ανωθεν ου δυναται ιδειν την βασιλειαν του θεου	31ην δε ανθρωπος εκ των φαρισαιων νικοδημος ονομα αυτω αρχων των ιουδαιων 2ουτος ηλθε προς αὐτὸν νυκτὸς και ειπεν αυτω ραββι οιδαμεν οτι απο θεου εληλυθας διδασκαλος ουδεις γαρ [] ταυτα τα σημεια δυναται ποιειν α συ ποιεις εαν μη η ο θεος μετ αυτου 3 απεκριθη ο ιησους και ειπεν αυτω αμην αμην λεγω σοι εαν μη τις γεννηθη ανωθεν ου δυναται ιδειν την βασιλειαν του θεου
Auton Dunatai []	ton Jesoun [] o	Auton [] o

I selected the above example at random, John 3:1-3 in "the critical text" (NA28), "the textus receptus" (Beza's 1598 printing), and "the majority text" (the Hodges-Farstad, which I couldn't simply paste in - so it's possible I made a transcription error).  

There are about 65 words, and about 62 of those words are the same in all three, for an agreement of about 95%.  You could express it this way: the NA28 agrees with the majority text 95% of the time (at least for this sample, which may or may not be representative).

There are three variant readings that I found amongst these printed texts.  The first is whether it should be "ton jesoun" (Jesus) or "auton" (Him).  On this variant, the NA28 and majority text agree.  On the other two variants, the majority and TR agree against the NA28.  

In this sample, I didn't come across a case where the three texts had entirely different readings, at least in part because it's a small sample.

When I say that no matter which text you pick, it's basically the same, this is what I mean.  In my opinion, the "Him" clearly is Jesus, the "can" is implied in the majority text and TR, and whether Jesus has an article in verse 3 is not translatable into English.  So, while these are differences, and while we should care about every jot and tittle, the differences are not really that great.

I know that the differences would be greater if we went to John 5:4 or John 8:1, but if we look at the New Testament as a whole, the differences are slight.  We should care about those differences, but we shouldn't let that get out of proportion.