Aurelia

Stylometrics
Aurelia

Aurelia was the mother of Julius Caesar. Our stylometric test, BIRD, also leads to something new — not something achieved on the ground, but an ongoing contribution to the understanding of ancient texts.

Were the Old Testament texts written by one person, or at one time, as many think? Or were they written by many, over a period of time, as their diverse and sometimes contradictory content implies? Both cannot be correct. BIRD results are here called on to provide evidence for one alternative or the other. As it turns out, they support, or are compatible with, the text growth alternative.

Interpreting BIRD Results
From the Style page, we repeat the guidelines for interpreting the D numbers on BIRD tables:

Extreme: D = 1.00 or more. Not the same author or source; a break in continuity.
High: D = 0.75 ~ 0.99. A different author, or the same author in a disturbed mood.
Normal: D = 0.51 ~ 0.76. The usual thing. Perhaps different chapters in the same work.
Low: D = 0.50 or less. A continuous narrative, or when a passage has another "in mind."

Now we proceed to consider some specific examples.

A. BIRD Results Suggesting Text Growth
Some BIRD results refute the single-author view directly, by showing that two texts yield an Extreme reading, and so cannot be by the same person, Moses or any other. Other results support other evidence for interpolation, such as incompatibility with context, and thus imply text growth in a different way. The growth of a text over time argues against its composition at any one time.

Martin Noth

A1. Genesis - Deuteronomy. The Pentateuch. No one person wrote all five, or any two, of these texts.
A2. Genesis 14. Saving Lot. Incompatible with everything else in Genesis, or in the Pentateuch.
A3. Exodus 8:38-10:29. The Miracles of Yahweh. Leaving behind what Pharaoh's magicians can do.
A4. Exodus 20. The Decalogue. As Noth and others have seen, it is a later addition to Exodus.
A5. Exodus 32-34. The Golden Calf. The beginning and end of this incident are marked off stylistically.
A6. Numbers 12. Miriam. Is this defiance of Moses mindful of the previous one, in Exodus 32?
A7. Deuteronomy 17:14-20. The Law of the King. This critique of Solomon is intrusive in Deuteronomy.
A8. Judges 11:30-40. Jephthah's Daughter. This touching incident was later added to Judges.
A9. Judges 13-16. Samson. His already thrilling story later received a still more thrilling extension.

B. BIRD Results Showing Literary Aspects of Certain Passages
Other BIRD results illustrate the artistry of individual authors, or show how one text is aware of, and either directly or implicitly acknowledges, another text. It will appear that later texts are typically longer, or more exciting, or give a more important role to women, than earlier texts.

Bernhard Duhm

B1. Genesis 4. The Sins of Eden. The heavenly paradise becomes earthly, and in more than one way.
B2. Exodus 11 and Numbers 16. Quails. One has the other "in mind." Does that show up stylistically?
B3. Exodus 36-40. The Journey. Bringing this long story to a literarily satisfying conclusion.
B4. Numbers 22-24. Balaam. The last two of these three chapters elaborate the first.
B5. Numbers 27 and 36. The Daughters of Zelophehad. How similar are these two court cases?
B6. Ruth 1-4. The high point of her story is not the emotional Ruth 1, but the legalistic Ruth 3.
B7. 2 Kings 22-24. Bald Elisha. One more place where an otherwise lost tradition can be glimpsed.
B8. Isaiah 1-66. Duhm was right about there being three compositional stages in this long text . . .
B9. Isaiah 2:4 and Micah 4:3 . . . but the first of them is honeycombed with material from other texts.

To request a BIRD reading for a passage of interest not included here, please use the mail link below.

BIRD has its limitations. It uses only part of the relevant data. Its readings are subject to interference from interpolations or other extraneous matter in the passages being tested. Smaller samples are increasingly likely to give false positives. But BIRD has this sovereign advantage: it is simply a process. It has no preferences about the outcome. It doesn't care about our thoughts, and it has none of its own.

Some say that all these texts were written in the year 0400. The texts themselves tell a different story. Stylometrics adds its voice to theirs, helping readers to follow along, as older ideas are modified, new ones make their appearance, and the process of change continues to happen.

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