Word-Pattern Comparisons of Pauline and Later Epistles

DMB

This post is probably for very few; forewarned.

Scalometry and the Pauline Epistles 

This resource is unusual.  Logos.com has a select number of resources that look at authorial 'usage patterns' ... Old Testament, and New. Spelling patterns, syntax, vocabulary, etc.

Scalometry, as the word suggests, looks at scale, and in this case, sentence and phrase length by presumed author.  It was written about 20 years back; I'd say the technology has progressed considerably.  But the patterns the resource demonstrates are quite interesting; he hypothesizes start-stop dictation sections to explain the patterns.

But unique to this resource, if you're interested is verse by verse comparisons of what are often viewed as later epistles ... Eph, Col, Pastorals, Hebrews, Petrines.  It's quite eery, though he suggests a missionary group that worked off the same teachings (expressed slightly differently, but in greek, quite similar).

I'll still want to re-read the 'scalometry' idea; people do vary how they express themselves, relative to genre. But definitely I'll want to re-look the 'late' epistle patterns.

Lew Worthington

Much to my surprise -- although I knew it at one point -- I do have this resource. I think you and I see this kind of thing in the same way: A method begging for an application begging for legitimacy. My mathematical self realizes, though, that given a sufficiently large collection of words, any pattern can be found. (Basically, the answer to the question, "Would an infinitely large number of chimps typing on an infinitely large number of typewriters for an infinitely large amount of time produce the complete works of Shakespeare? Mathematics says, "Yes!") With such a small sample set, I'm hugely skeptical that anything can be proven using the method Barr does. But I'm intrigued by the eerie stuff you mention just for a trivia aspect of it.