Searching within individual sources

[ct253]

Hello.

 

I have been curious for a little bit now about whether or not I could use Accordance to help with source-critical analysis.

 

Basically, my ideal scenario would be something like this:

I can go through the Torah and designate which passages are E, J, P, or D. Then I can search and use analytics within those custom ranges. So, for example, I could use hits analysis to see how their individual vocabularies vary, or look at trends in grammatical constructions.

 

Is there any way to do this sort of thing?

 

Thanks,

Colin

[Λύχνις Δαν]

Hi ya,

 

  The first place to start is to define a set of custom ranges (Search -> Define Range ...)  for E, J, P, D and R. When I did this I hit a snag. The reckoning of the witnesses I was working from (Friedman) requires you to split verses so that one part is in one range and the other in another, which you cannot do in Accordance. That may perturb your analysis when you do queries later, so you have to bear that in mind. Once you have those you can then do searches in those custom ranges and use the analytics to produce lists of words and frequencies. You can thus check for presence and absence of key vocab. You can also restrict construct and syntax searches by these ranges and thus check for constructions of interest too.You will quite possibly need to export the analysis results for further comparison in a spreadsheet which, with some post-processing, can also be done.

 

  I didn't actually complete my study of this but that's how I started. 

 

Thx

D

[ct253]

That's a great method for that. By any chance, do you have any of the data (custom ranges etc.) that you put together when you were doing it yourself that you could share? Even if incomplete, it would make the (rather long and laborious) process a bit better!

 

Thanks for your insight!

Colin

[Solly]

One could expand the research to evaluate results of source-critical analysis of the various schemata proposed by various scholars for the Torah. Yes Colin, this would be a massive undertaking, but it would give insight on which proposals are more self consistent (of course the reason for this self consistency is another question and quest).

 

I lost interest in the details of the documentary approach a few decades back when I observed a lack of convergence within the proposed schemata for the documentary assignments within the Torah.

 

Best wishes in your investigations,

Joseph

[Λύχνις Δαν]

Here are my ranges, after Friedman :

 

DH-E

 

Gen 20:1-18,21:6,21:8-21,21:22-34,22:1-10,16-19,25:1-4,28:11-12,17-18,20-22,30:1-3,4-24,31:1-2,4-16,19-48,50-54,32:1-3,32:14-24,32:25-33,33:1-17,33:18-20,35:1-8,35:16-20,37:3,4,12-18,21-22,24,25,28,29,30,36,40:1-23,41:1-45,46-57,42:5-7,21-25,35-37,43:14,18-23,45:3,46:1-5,28-34,47:7-10,48:1-2,8-22,50:23-26,Ex 1:8-12,15-21,3:1,4,6,9-18,4:1-18,20-23,27-31,5:3-6:1,7:14-18,20-21,23-29,8:3-11,16-28,9:1-7,13-34,10:1-19,21-26,28-29,11:1-8,12:21-27,29-36,37-39,13:1-19,14:11-12,19,20,25,15:20-21,25-26,17:2-16,18:1-27,19:2-9,16-17,20:18-26,21:1-27,22:1-30,23:1-33,24:1-15,18,32:1-33:23,Nu 11:1-35,12:1-16,21:4-9,22:2-24:25,Deut 31:14-15,23,33:1,34:1-6

 

DH-J

 

Gen 20:1-18,21:6,21:8-21,21:22-34,22:1-10,16-19,25:1-4,28:11-12,17-18,20-22,30:1-3,4-24,31:1-2,4-16,19-48,50-54,32:1-3,32:14-24,32:25-33,33:1-17,33:18-20,35:1-8,35:16-20,37:3,4,12-18,21-22,24,25,28,29,30,36,40:1-23,41:1-45,46-57,42:5-7,21-25,35-37,43:14,18-23,45:3,46:1-5,28-34,47:7-10,48:1-2,8-22,50:23-26,Ex 1:8-12,15-21,3:1,4,6,9-18,4:1-18,20-23,27-31,5:3-6:1,7:14-18,20-21,23-29,8:3-11,16-28,9:1-7,13-34,10:1-19,21-26,28-29,11:1-8,12:21-27,29-36,37-39,13:1-19,14:11-12,19,20,25,15:20-21,25-26,17:2-16,18:1-27,19:2-9,16-17,20:18-26,21:1-27,22:1-30,23:1-33,24:1-15,18,32:1-33:23,Nu 11:1-35,12:1-16,21:4-9,22:2-24:25,Deut 31:14-15,23,33:1,34:1-6,ex 1:6,22,2:1-23,3:2-4,5,7-8,19-22,4:19-20,24-26,5:6,13:21-22,14:5-7,9,10,13-14,19-21,24-25,27,30-31,15:1-18,22-25,16:4-5,35,19:10-16,18,20-25,34:1-13,34:14-28,Nu 10:29-36,13:17-20,23-24,27-31,33,14:1,4,11-25,39-45,16:1-2,12-14,25,27-32,33-34,20:14-21,21:1-3,21-35

 

DH-P

 

Gen 1:1-2:3,6:9-22,7:8-9,11,13-16,21,24,8:1-2,3-5,7,13,14-19,9:1-17,10:1-7,20,22-23,31,32,11:27-31,12:4-5,13:6,11-12,16:3,15-16,17:1-27,19:29,21:1-5,23:1-20,25:20,25:7,8-11,25:13-18,26:34-35,27:46,28:1-9,35:23-26,31:18,35:9-15,27,28-29,36:2-30,37:1,41:45-46,46:6-27,47:27,28,48:3-6,49:29-33,50:12-13,Ex 1:7,13-14,2:23-25,6:2-12,14-25,7:1-13,19-20,21,22,8:1-3,12-15,8:8-12,12:1-20,28,40-49,14:1-4,8,9,10,15-18,21-23,26-29,16:2-3,6-36,19:1,20:1-17,24:15-18,25:1-31:18,34:29-40,Lev 1-27,Nu 1:1-2:34,3:2-9:14,10:1-12,14-27,13:1-16,21-22,25,26,32,14:1-3,5-10,26-39,15:32-41,16:1-11,15-24,26,27,32,35,17:1-18:32,19:1-22,20:1-13,23-29,25:6-19,26:1-8,12-65,27:1-23,30:1-17,31:1-54,32:1-42,33:50-56,34:1-29,35:1-34,36:1-13,Deut 34:7-9

 

DH-R

 

Gen 2:4,5:1-28,30-32,7:6,9:28-29,10:1,11:10-26,11:27,32,22:11-16,25:5-6,12,19,33:18,36:1,37:2,48:7,49:28,Lev 23:39-43,26:39-45,Nu 3:1,9:15-23,10:13,28,15:1-31,16:24,27,20:1,22,21:4,21:10-20,22:1,26:9-11,28:1-31,29:1-39,33:1-49

 

DH-DTR1-Deuteronomy

 

Deut 1:1-4:24,32-49,5:1-8:18,9:1-11:32,26:16-19,27:1-26,28:1-35,38-62,28:69,29:1-20,28,30:11-13,31:1-8,31:9-12,24-27,32:45-47,34:10-12

 

DH-DTR2-Deuteronomy

 

Deut 4:25-31,8:19-20,28:36-37,63-68,29:21,27,30:1-10,14-20,31:16-22,28-30,32:44

 

DH-Other-Deuteronomy

 

Deut 12:1-26:15,32:1-43,33:2-27,32:48-52

 

 

For reference the book is "Who Wrote the Bible ?" by Richard Elliot Friedman. (I just couldn't find it for the life of me - I hate losing track of a book ! Anyhow, just found it, yay !)

 

HTH

D

Edited August 8, 2018 by דָנִיאֶל

[ct253]

Daniel,

 

Thank you so much! You're the best! You just saved me hours of work! (And that was the source I was going to us as well!)

 

Thanks

Colin

[Λύχνις Δαν]

Welcome Colin. I'd be interested in what you make of it. I did validate that I had not completely messed up in the ranges to some extent but I wouldn't swear there are no errors.

 

Good luck

 

Thx

D

[Ken Simpson]

Another way, though I am not certain of the provenance, is to use the sources highlight file from the exchange.

 

Then you can search within a "source" by specifying the Style you want to search for.

 

So, using the Source highlight styles applied, I searched for God in J (yes an English text, but it will work in Hebrew as well) by search for

 

God <AND> [style J]

 

The results are:

 

Verses:

Gen 2:4–5, 7, 15–16, 18–19, 21–22; 3:1, 3, 5, 8–9, 13–14, 21–23; 4:25; 6:2, 4; 9:26–27; 16:13; 26:24; 28:13; 32:28, 30; 35:5; 49:25

 

and the analysis is:

 

Total number of verses = 31

  (total number of verses displayed = 31) 

 

God [Flex] (35 total words)

 

Number of different forms = 2:

(Triple-click a form to see its occurrences)

 

God = 35

H0410 ’el אֵל = 2

H0430 ’elohim אֱלֹהִים = 33

 

An advantage of this method is that you can highlight part verses...

Edited August 14, 2018 by Ken Simpson