Tracking Semantic Drift in the Biblical Corpus by Matthew Munson

Tracking Semantic Drift in the Biblical Corpus by Matthew Munson mmunson@gcdh.de Twitter: @sonofmun

Background Hypothesis – One can understand the New Testament better by investigating how it uses and changes sections of the Old Testament – And one can do this on the level of individual words What I will present – Method and Data – Some interpretation and a little synthesis of results

Theoretical Basis I Daniel Boyarin – Theological – Rabbis recombined biblical passages, recontextualizing them into new narratives 1 Zellig Harris - Linguistic – the most precise way of determining a word’s meaning is by investigating the meanings of the words that occur along with that word. 2 – We can determine differences in word meaning by analyzing differences in context

Theoretical Basis II Later authors recontextualize and context demonstrates meaning So by tracking how later authors recontextualize the words used by earlier authors, we can track meaning change These differences could be – Theological – Cultural – Linguistic

Note of Caution Ultimate in historical-critical method – meaning is relational – But this makes determining “actual meaning” a very complex process the “meaning” of every word is communicated by the meaning of every other word with which it co-occurs and every word with which the co-occurrents co-occur etc.

Methodological Overview Count co-occurrences of word lemmata – Window of 4 left and 4 right of target word Calculate statistical significance of co- occurrence Compare the words between and within the testaments

Count Co-Occurrence L4L3L2L1TargetR1R2R3R4 ἐνἀρχήποιέωὁθεόςὁοὐρανόςκαίὁ ὁἄβυσσοςκαίπνεῦμαθεόςἐπιφέρωἐπάνωὁὕδωρ Counts: ὁ - 5 καί - 2 ἐν - 1 ἀρχή - 1 ποιέω - 1 οὐρανός - 1 ἄβυσσος - 1 πνεῦμα - 1 ἐπιφέρω - 1 ἐπάνω - 1 ὕδωρ - 1

Calculate Statistical Significance Significant co-occurrence happens when two words occur together more often than you would expect by chance – LXX: ὁ 1 every 7 words, κύριος 1 every 72 – w/ θεός: ὁ 1 every 5 words, κύριος 1 every 22 – θεός attracts κύριος more than it attracts ὁ Log-likelihood measure

Log Likelihood Better for sparse data More interpretable than, e.g., chi-squared “It is…a number that tells us how much more likely one hypothesis is than another” (Manning and Schutze, 1999)

Log Likelihood Formula Log λ = log L(H 1 ) #independence L(H 2 ) #dependence = log L(c 12, c 1, p) + log L(c 2 -c 12, N-c 1, p) - log L(c 12, c 1, p 1 ) – log L(c 2 -c 12, N-c 1, p 2 ) Where L(k,n,x) = x k (1-x) n-k c 1 = occurrences of word 1 c 2 = occurrences of word 2 c 12 = co-occurrences of word 1 with word 2 N = number of tokens in the text p = c 1 /N p 1 = c 12 /c 1 p 2 = (c 2 -c 12 )/(N-c 1 )

Different Ways Forward Compare LL lists manually, but… – 3,893 words common to both testaments – Over 14,000 (LXX) or 5,300 (NT) possible co- occurrants – Need to reduce the complexity Compare LL lists automatically

Cosine Similarity Calculates the similarity of two lists Python Code c1 = {ἐγώ: 0.00015636973, αὐτός: -0.00656411755…} c2 = {ἐγώ: 0.58764128248, αὐτός: 0.00000217846…} terms = set(c1).union(c2) dotprod = sum(c1.get(k, 0) * c2.get(k, 0) for k in terms) magA = math.sqrt(sum(c1.get(k, 0)**2 for k in terms)) magB = math.sqrt(sum(c2.get(k, 0)**2 for k in terms)) return dotprod / (magA * magB)

Cosine Similarity I calculated similarity between the testaments – e.g., how similar are the log-likelihood lists for θεός in the OT and θεός in the NT – This tells us which words have changed the most between the testaments And within the testaments – e.g., how similar is the log-likelihood list for θεός in the OT with that of κύριος in the OT – Tells us which words are most similar within each testament

And then... Investigate change in usage (log-likelihood lists) – OT Log Likelihood – NT Log Likelihood = change Investigate change in meaning (cosine similarity lists) – OT COS Similarity – NT COS Similarity = change Here‘s how...

1. Determine Difference in Usage WordSimilarityOccurrences OTOccurrences NT Σίμων0.1249782378075 χάρις0.125823442134155 γεννάω0.17716260325497 ἐκβάλλω0.17889915610181 προσεύχομαι0.25827232411085 ἕτερος0.26827656226798 Μωϋσῆς0.27934205982680 ἄλλος0.280188682108155 διδάσκω0.28289205710797 ἑπτά0.29273426137788 καλός0.296850637235102 νεκρός0.29895782790128 ἔτι0.31674347555093 οὐδείς0.317224244188234 ἐγείρω0.32261138380144 ἐκκλησία0.334642299103114 βλέπω0.34332697133132 ζωή0.349299071298135 προσέρχομαι0.37494520311686 πονηρός0.3828415338278

2. Compare Change in Usage Σίμων - Simon CollocateLog-likelihood Diff.English Translation ἀρχιερεύς4.78868755High Priest ἀδελφός1.97668932Brother σύ0.70884314You δέ0.61095764But, and μέγας0.46820919Great ἐγώ0.44210074I καλέω0.29046041To call τὶς0.20737781Someone, Something αἴρω0.20060086To lift up... θάλασσα-0.35265681Sea ἀποκρίνομαι-0.37932464To set apart πρός-0.39142971Towards οὖν-0.43430816And so λέγω-0.80210635To say ὁ-0.940275The ἐπικαλέω-0.98102451Summon καί-1.06836515And Ἰούδας-1.96547425Judas χάρις – grace, favor CollocateLog-likelihood Diff.English Translation εὑρίσκω17.02945To find ἐναντίον7.104399Opposite ὁ4.55197The ἐνώπιον2.082461Facing εἰ1.887208If ἀγαθός1.432463Good δόξα0.988545Glory παρά0.711348Beside σύ0.580478You... σοφία-0.53002Wisdom ἔλεος-0.68112Mercy διά-0.91597Through κατά-0.9759Downwards κύριος-0.99528Lord καί-1.14771And αὐτός-1.53347Himself λέγω-1.59654To say θεός-3.62867God

2. Change in Usage Analysis Σίμων OT – appears with ἀρχιερεύς and ἀδελφός (he was high priest and brother of Judas and Jonathan Maccabee) NT – appears with Ἰούδας (“Judas son of Simon”), with ἐπικαλέω and ἀποκρίνομαι (apostolic words) and with θάλασσα (the sea) χάρις OT – appears with εὑρίσκω (to find), with ἐναντίον and ἐνώπιον (facing words), and with ἀγαθός (description of gifts) NT – appears with θεός and κύριος (giver of gifts) and σοφία and ἔλεος (possible gifts)

3. Compare Change in Topic Σίμων Similar WordCosine Similarity Diff.English πολεμέω0.354931673to fight, to make war Σαλωμών0.354820728Solomon ἐξολεθρεύω0.347724511to destroy utterly νέος0.34625518youthful, new καταλείπω0.345432626to leave behind Ονιας0.337392476Onias ἰσχύς0.336073321strength, might Ιωναθαν0.334101138Jonathan πατάσσω0.334069924strike, smite... Πέτρος-0.306455693Peter ἀνακαθίζω-0.331895269to sit up διενθυμέομαι-0.33809918ponder νεύω-0.343399149to nod Ἰάκωβος-0.369768608James ξενίζω-0.402026864to entertain, astonish φράζω-0.418118756to explain, interpret ἁλιεύω-0.449737419to fish Ἀνδρέας-0.461752972Andrew χάρις Similar WordCosine Similarity Diff.English κατασχίζω0.559569675to cut up, to tear up παροινέω0.535813921to insult, to rage against συνοδία0.531470401caravan, company of travellers κόνδυ0.485367609drinking vessel, cup νεφθαι0.437069069naphtha ἀντρώδης0.390486532cave-like καρπόω0.385592739to offer (as a burnt offering) διόρυγμα0.379334876digging through, breach, hole δεκαπλασίων0.374839561ten-fold... οὖν-0.553553397and so ὅς-0.553573814who, which, what, that γάρ-0.56084709for θεός-0.561622448God λέγω-0.562754892to say δέ-0.574144999and, but ἵνα-0.575720796so that διά-0.584088488through μαθητής-0.668627965pupil, apprentice, disciple

3. Change in Topic Analysis Σίμων OT – shares same topic with πολεμέω, ἐξολεθρεύω, ἰσχύς, and πατάσσω (war words), and Ονιας and Ιωναθαν (two other high priests) NT – shares same topic with Ἀνδρέας, Ἰάκωβος, and Πέτρος (names of apostles), with ἁλιεύω (to fish), and with διενθυμέομαι and φράζω (interpretation words) χάρις OT – shares same topic with κατασχίζω, κόνδυ, νεφθαι, καρπόω (sacrificial words) NT – shares same topic with μαθητής, θεός, and λέγω. Words 10 and 11 are ἀγάπη and πίστις (gifts)

1. Determine Difference in Usage WordCSim Score OT to NTOcc OTOcc NT ἀκούω0,8458228951067428 ἄνθρωπος0,8493516071427550 κύριος0,8571966768605717 ἐκ0,8597037063831914 ὁράω0,8635013591503483 μετά0,8635380792522469 θεός0,86371076340081317 γινώσκω0,865117244754222 εἰσέρχομαι0,86794173710194 ἡμέρα0,8694715812572389 ἔρχομαι0,8742661881082632 ποιέω0,8775629273387568 δέ0,88043456749072792

1. Determine Difference in Usage WordCSim Score OT-NTOcc OTOcc NT ἀκούω0,8458228951067428 ἄνθρωπος0,8493516071427550 κύριος0,8571966768605717 ἐκ0,8597037063831914 ὁράω0,8635013591503483 μετά0,8635380792522469 θεός0,86371076340081317 γινώσκω0,865117244754222 εἰσέρχομαι0,86794173710194 ἡμέρα0,8694715812572389 ἔρχομαι0,8742661881082632 ποιέω0,8775629273387568 δέ0,88043456749072792

2. Compare Change in Usage Septuagint Co-OccurrentsNew Testament Co-Occurrents

2. Compare Change in Usage Septuagint VerbsNew Testament Verbs

2. Compare Change in Usage Septuagint NounsNew Testament Nouns

3. Compare Change in Topic SeptuagintNew Testament Similar WordOT SimNT SimSim DiffTranslation Σατανᾶς0,0000,419-0,419Satan Φαρισαῖος0,0000,429-0,429Pharisees μέλλω0,2560,698-0,442to be about to πιστεύω0,4410,883-0,442to believe ἑκατοντάρχης-0,1880,256-0,444centurion ὑπάγω0,0640,511-0,447to go, die τοιοῦτος0,0960,545-0,449like this πίστις0,3730,829-0,456Belief εὐαγγέλιον0,0250,490-0,465gospel Πέτρος0,0000,494-0,494Peter Πιλᾶτος0,0000,495-0,495Pilate Χριστός0,0000,520-0,520Christ οὖν0,3020,833-0,532and so χάρις0,1380,699-0,562gift ἵνα0,3390,904-0,565in order to φανερόω-0,0180,558-0,577To show ἀπόστολος0,0000,613-0,613apostle ἀγάπη-0,0080,639-0,647love Παῦλος0,0000,662-0,662Paul μαθητής0,0000,783-0,783Disciple Similar WordOT SimNT SimSim DiffTranslation Σαλωμών0,6900,0000,690Solomon ἐξολεθρεύω0,7360,0500,686destroy utterly πρόσταγμα0,6820,0000,682command παιδάριον0,6810,0040,677child πεδίον0,6740,0000,674field αἰχμαλωσία0,629-0,0330,661captivity ἐγκαταλείπω0,7130,0770,635To forsake ἀλλόφυλος0,6660,0360,630foreign κτῆνος0,615-0,0140,629cattle ἐναντίον0,7660,1370,629facing ἐκζητέω0,7730,1450,628seek out χριστός0,6120,0000,612anointed ἐλπίζω0,318-0,2940,611To hope καταλαμβάνω0,588-0,0230,611To lay hold of ἐξαίρω0,6490,0390,610to drive away Βενιαμίν0,546-0,0500,597Benjamin ἔναντι0,6380,0500,588before συντελέω0,7400,1550,585to finish κακία0,6870,1070,580wickedness πατάσσω0,7340,1550,579to strike

3. Change in Topic – LXX Similar Words Chi-Squared Less Than.25 ἐκζητέω0,916seek out δείκνυμι0,890to show πρότερος0,886earlier τάσσω0,882to arrange ὀχύρωμα0,877stronghold τύπτω0,873to strike πάρειμι0,873to be present ἐφοράω0,873to watch over μνημόσυνον0,873memorial, memory ἔσθω0,873eat ἐπιτάσσω0,873to command ἐξουδενόω0,873treat with contempt διάνοια0,873mind, heart μεθύσκω0,873to make drunk κατέχω0,873to hold, detain εὐδοκέω0,873to take delight ἀριθμέω0,873to count ἐκτρίβω0,873todestroy Ἰδουμαία0,873Idumea συναντάω0,873to meet, happen Chi-squared, No Limit Σαλωμών0,690Solomon ἐξολεθρεύω0,686destroy utterly πρόσταγμα0,682command παιδάριον0,677child πεδίον0,674field αἰχμαλωσία0,661captivity ἐγκαταλείπω0,635to desert ἀλλόφυλος0,630foreign κτῆνος0,629cattle ἐναντίον0,629facing ἐκζητέω0,628to search for χριστός0,612anointed ἐλπίζω0,611hope καταλαμβάνω0,611to take ἐξαίρω0,610to drive away Βενιαμίν0,597Benjamin ἔναντι0,588opposite, before συντελέω0,585to finish κακία0,580wickedness πατάσσω0,579to strike Chi-squared Less Than.10 καταλείπω0,883to forsake χώρα0,879field ἁγιάζω0,879to sanctify ἑτοιμάζω0,879to prepare συντελέω0,877to finish Αἰγύπτιος0,877Egypt δείκνυμι0,875to show πλανάω0,875to wander Αβιμελεχ0,875Abimelech ἐκζητέω0,875seek out ἅμα0,875together πλατύς0,875wide ἀναιρέω0,875to destroy ἔνδοξος0,875Honoured ῥάβδος0,875scepter μεγαλύνω0,875To magnify κατάσχεσις0,875Possession θεωρέω0,875to observe κριτής0,875a judge, ruler ἀπώλεια0,875destruction

3. Change in Topic – LXX Similar Words Chi-Squared Less Than.25 ἐκζητέω0,916seek out δείκνυμι0,890to show πρότερος0,886earlier τάσσω0,882to arrange ὀχύρωμα0,877stronghold τύπτω0,873to strike πάρειμι0,873to be present ἐφοράω0,873to watch over μνημόσυνον0,873memorial, memory ἔσθω0,873eat ἐπιτάσσω0,873to command ἐξουδενόω0,873treat with contempt διάνοια0,873mind, heart μεθύσκω0,873to make drunk κατέχω0,873to hold, detain εὐδοκέω0,873to take delight ἀριθμέω0,873to count ἐκτρίβω0,873to destroy Ἰδουμαία0,873Idumea συναντάω0,873to meet, happen Chi-squared, No Limit Σαλωμών0,690Solomon ἐξολεθρεύω0,686destroy utterly πρόσταγμα0,682command παιδάριον0,677child πεδίον0,674field αἰχμαλωσία0,661captivity ἐγκαταλείπω0,635to desert ἀλλόφυλος0,630foreign κτῆνος0,629cattle ἐναντίον0,629facing ἐκζητέω0,628to search for χριστός0,612anointed ἐλπίζω0,611hope καταλαμβάνω0,611to take ἐξαίρω0,610to drive away Βενιαμίν0,597Benjamin ἔναντι0,588opposite, before συντελέω0,585to finish κακία0,580wickedness πατάσσω0,579to strike Chi-squared Less Than.10 καταλείπω0,883to forsake χώρα0,879field ἁγιάζω0,879to sanctify ἑτοιμάζω0,879to prepare συντελέω0,877to finish Αἰγύπτιος0,877Egypt δείκνυμι0,875to show πλανάω0,875to wander Αβιμελεχ0,875Abimelech ἐκζητέω0,875seek out ἅμα0,875together πλατύς0,875wide ἀναιρέω0,875to destroy ἔνδοξος0,875Honoured ῥάβδος0,875scepter μεγαλύνω0,875To magnify κατάσχεσις0,875Possession θεωρέω0,875to observe κριτής0,875a judge, ruler ἀπώλεια0,875destruction

3. Change in Topic – NT Similar Words Chi-squared Less Than.10 ἕτερος-0,563other μαρτυρέω-0,570to witness οὖν-0,587and so, therefore ἐμός-0,590mine, of me ἵνα-0,621in order to εὐαγγέλιον-0,623good news, gospel βάλλω-0,633to drive out ὥρα-0,646time of day, hour πέμπω-0,670send μᾶλλον-0,685more χάρις-0,764grace, gift ὄχλος-0,840crowd μαθητής-0,841disciple Παῦλος-0,855Paul πίστις-0,973belief, trust ὅπου-0,973where μέλλω-0,973to be about to ἀγάπη-0,973love ἀπόστολος-0,973apostle περιπατέω-0,973to behave, live Chi-squared Less Than.25 θαυμάζω-0,671to wonder διάβολος-0,685devil λοιπός-0,691remaining πτωχός-0,692poor, needy τέλος-0,700the end μνημεῖον-0,732monument ἀγάπη-0,756love σταυρόω-0,762to crucify ἀπόστολος-0,763apostle Παῦλος-0,777Paul τοιοῦτος-0,827like this, certain μαθητής-0,832disciple μάρτυς-0,967witness διό-0,967therefore φανερόω-0,967reveal, show Σατανᾶς-0,967devil βλασφημέω-0,967to blaspheme εὐαγγελίζω-0,967to evangelize ὀφείλω-0,967to owe ὁμοίως-0,967likewise Chi-Squared, No Limit Σατανᾶς-0,419Satan Φαρισαῖος-0,429Pharisees μέλλω-0,442to be about to πιστεύω-0,442to believe ἑκατοντάρχης-0,444centurion ὑπάγω-0,447to go (away) τοιοῦτος-0,449like this πίστις-0,456trust, faith εὐαγγέλιον-0,465gospel Πέτρος-0,494Peter Πιλᾶτος-0,495Pilate Χριστός-0,520Christ οὖν-0,532and so χάρις-0,562grace, gift ἵνα-0,565in order to φανερόω-0,577reveal, show ἀπόστολος-0,613apostle ἀγάπη-0,647love Παῦλος-0,662Paul μαθητής-0,783disciple

Conclusions Method produces a lot of noise But it produces classifiable, logical results – LXX – God’s is represented in many ways – NT – God’s servants and their relationship to God – NT is much more uniform than LXX (Jon Levenson) Next Steps – Compare the LL tables for the words on each end of the CSDiff lists This should give an idea of usage and meaning of the words in each testament This will, in turn, make it clear what the significance of θεος being closely related to those words is All “meaning” that would be found here is relational not absolute – Automatic classification of related words with topic modeling – Analysis with translation equivalents and comparison with co- occurrence results

Thank You!

Footnotes 1.Daniel Boyarin, Intertextuality and the Reading of Midrash. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990. 2.Zellig S. Harris, “How Words Carry Meaning.” Language and Information: The Bampton Lectures, Columbia University, 1986. Lecture. http://www.ircs.upenn.edu/zellig/3_2.mp3 http://www.ircs.upenn.edu/zellig/3_2.mp3

Tracking Semantic Drift in the Biblical Corpus by Matthew Munson

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Tracking Semantic Drift in the Biblical Corpus by Matthew Munson

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