Dear Kay, dear Russell, dear all,
the first lecture of Ven. Anālayo’s course on “Women in Indian Buddhism”, among other things, dealt with a comparison of MN146 and its parallel SĀ276. I think it is planned to make the lectures publicly available (I will later post the link). A recent paper by Ven. Anālayo addresses exactly this topic. This is a study, which I find, bears findings of crucial importance:
Anālayo 2010: “Attitudes Towards Nuns – A Case Study of the Nandakovāda in the Light of its Parallels”, (with a contribution by Giuliana Martini)", Journal of Buddhist Ethics, vol. 17 pp. 332–400.
Analayo_Attitude_towards_nuns.pdf (646.8 KB)
Fortunately, there are no copyright restrictions on sharing the paper in a digital format, as long as its contents is not modified. 
The paper contains a full translation of SĀ276 and of a Tibetan parallel (the parallel is in the appendix), next to the discussion around the differences to MN146. The reason for which I posted this paper here is, that it sketches a picture of early “spiritual equality” of women in Buddhism, very much opposed to its counterpart MN146, which reflects a lingering tendency to diminish the spiritual ability of women and to distort the open manner in which the Buddha received them. According to Ven. Anālayos study, these differences very likely seem to stem from later alterations found in MN146. Luckily, the alterations were NOT introduced by the reciters in a heinous conspiracy, but simply reflect the influence of an unfortunate mysogenous mindset that prevailed over the centruies in which the text was recited. This ultimetly led to the creeping incorporation of such views in MN146. Fortunately, such unintentional alterations usually do not come without contradictions/inconsistencies, which then can be detected as described in the paper.
Coming back now to a selection of the outstanding examples of equality shown in SĀ276, which were discussed among other things by Ven. Anālayo during the first lecture:
- The Bhikkhunīs are introduced by name and as famous disciples of the Buddha.
- The act of the Buddha teaching the Bhikkhunīs is depicted as something he would normally do. He also does so without being asked for it.
- The Buddha asks Ven Nandaka to teach the Bhikkhunīs, saying that Nandaka should do so, because the Buddha does the same.
- With the first teaching of Ven. Nandaka all Bhikkhunīs - a large gathering of nuns- reach non-return.
- With the second teaching all Bhikkhunīs reach full awakening.
Hence, in my view, it is a matter of incredible luck that one version of the sutta, i.e. SĀ276, was preserved, which avoids all the inconsistencies discussed in the paper while showing signs of being a comparatively older version of the sutta and also drafting a picture of the Buddha establishing the early Saṅgha in spiritual equality.
With much mettā,
Robert
ADDED 2015.04.23: I forgot to mention that the appendix to Anālayos paper contains the translation of the Tibetan parallel from the Mūla-Sarvāstivāda tradition done by Giuliana Martini (now Bhikkhunī Dhammadinnā). So the three main versions are all available in translation for comparative study! 