Database technology and the Bible

John Hobbins has outlined his requirements for a research database for the Study of Ancient Hebrew Poetry. (see here)

The overview of recent research provided in the preceding posts illustrates the degree to which parallel structures characterize ancient Hebrew verse at every level of the textual hierarchy. A research database designed to facilitate the study of the phenomenon would ideally have the following features. Components of texts presumed to be poetry would be tagged at the macro-structural, prosodic, semantic, syntactic, morphological, and sonic levels. Each of the six levels, to be sure, is multidimensional.

My own specialty over the past 40 years has been in data analysis and database structures. There is a vast gulf between natural language and database. I have not had a chance yet to do much study of a tagged text such as is in the morphological parsing and tagging from the Westminster Theological Seminary.

Here is another undated statement of requirement:

At present there does not exist a freely available syntactic database and corresponding search engine for the Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic syntactician and discourse analyst. Further, there is no standard, universally available database whereby the scientific community can repeat and verify the results of such study. Such a database would permit the researcher to make comprehensive statements about the behaviour of Biblical Hebrew syntax and textgrammar. Since it is first and foremost a research tool, a fundamental requirement is that the data and analysis are completely accessible and configurable by the researcher to reflect varying theories and improved understanding of the text and theories used to investigate the text.

I am sure the techniques are legion and incompatible. The approach I would take would be to discover the objects that are implied and their relationships - has anyone done this type of analysis yet? Some years ago I did a bit of analysis for a text-based database linking verse with scholar. It would not do as a database for what I am doing now or for what John wants, though some of its entities might be extendable in that direction (see this entity-relationship diagram).

There are two related problems to database. The first is design - the 'right' and 'extendible' set of objects. We know there are such objects because people use books and verses to hit each other with - but this is not necessarily the right starting point. The second problem is loading the data from a verifiable source. Both these are almost intractable given the explosion in thinking about Bible texts that is evident in the noo-sphere today. But if we do find the right structure, people will understand what Fred Brooks wrote in the Mythical Man Month in the '60s: "show me your logic and I will be mystified, show me your data and I won't need your logic to understand you."

Rose Macaulay

I have been reading Letters to a Friend, the correspondence between Rose Macaulay on her way back into the Church she had known as a child in trans-Atlantic correspondence in the 1950s with The Rev. John Hamilton Cowper Johnson, of the Society of St John the Evangelist. This one line amused me - it gave me a reason for the priesthood - as a reminder of what we all must do when the time is right as part of our priestly ministry (though for me not as an 'officer').

Dame Rose had been very recitent about seeing a priest. The letters grow on you. Here is what she writes about the first visit:

Fr. Wilkins was very kind and nice. He didn't say anything; practically nothing but the absolution. Perhaps this is his way. I expect he thinks people work out their own problems unaided, except for absolution when they work them out wrong.

Christi nativitas

Joseph was a just man, one unwilling to put another to shame. How do we think of justice these days, Beloved? Is it not when someone gets what they deserve? If we receive what we deserve, are we then blessed? God forbid we should be rewarded for our works. The works we will be rewarded for are the ones that God works in us. This is safety rather than just desserts. Yet we are free to act and to study with or without diligence.

Can one know any more about Jesus' birth than one could know say about my birth, or yours, or the birth of an emperor? I suspect Mary brought him forth from the womb with as much blood and pain and wonder as is common for any birth. Like Tamar, and the wife of Uriah, she was found with child outside of her betrothal. Pain is one measure of our reality. In this God is with us. Let me not be ashamed even of shame for God is with us in the burning fiery furnace of our affliction also, despising the shame for the glory that is to be known, caught even in our own traps.

Mark says nothing of the birth or Joseph. For him, Jesus appears like Melchizedek, without ancestors or progeny, a mysterious man whose identity is not to be revealed till his glory can be known. John agrees with Mark as one might expect, for this beloved disciple, John Mark, had an influence on the Elder's writing. In Mark, he is called the son of Mary, a reference to a fatherless child. In John he is twice called the son of Joseph. Whose son is he? And what is a son that we should adore him?

– He was not an easy child. I remember asking on my way in from the fields, "where is my son that he does not come to greet me?" He was always in the town, never home except at the most inconvenient times and without warning. He did not keep safe company.

Who can say when a birth will herald wholeness?

The Slam

We had a game in a writers' regular meeting I used to go to called the Slam. You were given 6 words in common with others and one unique to yourself and you had to make up a story on the spot using those words. Sometimes the audience had to figure out the common 6.

The top ten exercise is a bit like that. Can we say what story is being told by the selection of the top 10? What is it that we speak to by what we chose?

One thing I noted about my own 20- 10 from the TNK and 10 from the NT that surprised even me is that I proved exactly the opposite of what is a commonplace of thought about the OT and the NT. My OT verses have more to say about love and my NT verses more to say about judgment and death.

My Top Ten from KNT

There is a centre somewhere in the Bible. TNKNT. It is in the K - short for the Hebrew 'ki' - the answer to the question 'why'.

These are my impulsive best hits of the New Testament. Favorite books: Romans, Revelation, John, Mark, Hebrews

1. If you by the Spirit do put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
2. Out of his belly will flow fountains of living water.
3. And thou child will be called the prophet of the highest. (ht - the Benedictus to Anglican chant).
4. Simeon ... was looking for the consolation of Israel.
5. And he will give you another comforter, the Spirit of truth, who will be with you for ever.
6. Having boldness to enter into the Holy of Holies, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh.
7. I beseech you therefore, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies, a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto him.
8. Destroy this sanctuary and in three days I will rebuild it.
9. When the Son of Man I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself. (John 12:32 - I had to check my memory on this one - compare 3:13 - memory confuses first and third person.)
10. It is finished.

The centre between the New and the Old is the crucifixion, the place of truth exposing the place of the lie, the place where God meets us, the mercy seat. See also here for my Top Ten TNK. Update: John has evolved the meme slightly.

My Top Ten from TNK

I can scarcely imagine reducing the scriptures to my top ten - but before I read Doug on this, I must have a try. I will confine myself to the TNK first. I am going to go from memory and on impulse.

Narrowing down the books: Psalms, Genesis, Deuteronomy, Job, Ecclesiates, Isaiah, Song, Lamentations - that will do and some of my verses may not come from these favorites and some of my favorite books may not register individual verses. I apologize to the books I have not listed.

Verses: (if I need to say where they come from, they are not your favorite)

1. Let him kiss me with the mkisses of his mouth for your love is better than wine.
2. My beloved is mine and I am his - and its counter - I am my beloved's and his desire is for me.
3. He will not break a bruised reed, nor smother smouldering flax.
4. O that you were my brother that I might embrace you in the streets and no one would take notice.
5. Your loving kindness is better than life itself - my lips will praise you.
6. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, turn to the LORD your God (ht Thomas Tallis - favorites include musical memory) - to which I will add - ht Stanford - O pray for the peace of Jerusalem, they shall prosper that love thee.
7. Have mercy upon me, O God, after thy great goodness (ht Allegri).
8. My help comes even from the LORD who has made heaven and earth.
9. My just one will live by my/his faith/faithfulness (take your pick).
10. Sit at my right hand, till I make your enemies your footstool (ht Handel).

As for my excuses - that will have to wait for another time.

Jihad for Love

I expect this film will live up to its advance billing. I have seen the earlier work of Sandi Dubowski and it is tender-hearted - against which there is no law.