Textual Criticism: Text Version Comparison Statistics

[robertgbrown]

I'd please like to request a function which produces statistics when comparing text versions in a manner that would be really useful for textual criticism. Let me give an example.

 

I want to compare particular texts from the Judean Desert with the medieval Leningrad Codex in order to see just how similar they are. Accordance currently has a compare function, which highlights differences between texts. This function is great, but what I really want is a percentage figure telling me how similar, as a percentage, one text is from another.

 

I'm not entirely sure how this could be done, but the results would be incredibly helpful for quickly calculating the stability of a textual family by measuring multiple extant documents from different time periods.

 

Someone who has already undertaken a similar task, though I don't know by what methodology, is: Armin Lange, 'The Textual Plurality of Jewish Scriptures in the Second Temple Period in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls', in Nora David and Armin Lange (eds.), Qumran and the Bible: Studying the Jewish and Christian Scriptures in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Contributions to Biblical Exegesis and Theology, vol. 57 (Leuven: Peeters, 2010), 43-96.

[Timothy Jenney]

That is a really interesting proposal. I think it has possibilities. I also appreciate you've provided a scholarly source that we could use as an exemplar.

 

Thanks!

Edited August 22, 2017 by Timothy Jenney