Crud, sorry, I missed this earlier, but its good as there is good time to explain my reasoning.

#1: you are on a mobile device with a limited amount of screen real estate towards the text-size/width's viewable ranges.

#2: side by side can be done better when taking a similar approach that Maemo has with the homescreen - allowing for panes (workspaces) verus breaking the HID with two windows as we are used to on larger displays ( see post about linear user interfaces at the TabletUI blog)

The user interface and expected user experience on a large screen should never be mapped to a smaller screen.

Developing an interface should take into account the user, the actions they wish to do, and the space in which they are doing it. For example, comparative versus studies can be done when sitting at a desk or when in a line at the bank. However, at your desk, you expect to have not just the screen space, but the additional input mechanisms of keyboard and mouse to aid you pulling content. With the smaller device and in line, your hands are occupied, and therefore the process of finding the verse and looking at it beside the one you wish to compare has to take a different road to the same end.

If I can get the time (and in front of Visio), I'll mock up something near what I am talking about.