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  • From: Christopher Kimball <transcriber AT tanach.us>
  • To: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Wellhausen and statistical text analysis
  • Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2007 15:38:08 -0500


Technology exists for quantitatively comparing two texts. It gives statistical measures as to whether word usage and grammar in the same in the texts. Legal cases establishing authorship/non-authorship have been based on such measures and statistical measures can convince juries of reasonable people. But that's NOT the essence of the problem of the Documentary Hypothesis (DH).

The problem is in splitting a single text into pieces without inducing a particular result. Given a machine generated, homogeneous text, one can split the text arbitrarily so as to achieve desired statistical differences. This is the root problem of the DH. The DH is a subjective splitting that inherently achieves its goals.

The value of the DH is in recognizing the Torah is a composite document reflecting different traditions.

Chris Kimball

Redding, CT



  • [b-hebrew] Wellhausen and statistical text analysis, Christopher Kimball, 12/26/2007

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