New exegetical methodologies in dialogue:

What this site is all about

New exegetical methodologies

The main purpose of this site is to bring together several promising new biblical exegetical methodologies and place them in dialogue with one another. These four include

• analysis of the logoprosodic or arithmopoetic structure of the biblical text,
• analysis of its logotechnical dimensions (primary research available at labuschagne.nl)
• analysis of its statistical or arithmological dimensions,
• analysis of its musical structure, as indicated in its traditional cantillation marks,
• analysis of its musicological metaphors (with primary research at ernestmcclain.net) and ongoing discussion at the BIBAL yahoogroup), and
• analysis of the rhetorical structure of textual units such as cantos, strophes, and the like.

In addition to this site, the BIBAL yahoogroup contains dynamic and active discussion by the principals and other interested parties.

The center of the website is the Master Table, the major portion of which is the Psalms Project, where most of our efforts have been focused. The Master Table contains links to various supporting pages and other documentation.

a. Logoprosodic Analysis

This is the main work of this website, and it consists of an introduction to logoprosodic analysis, some further technical discussion, and a Master Table linked to separate pdfs analyzing each psalm.

The general introduction to logotechnical analysis written by Professor Casper J. Labuschagne and entitled "Did the writers of the Bible use numbers as a way of structuring their texts?" found here is important background for understanding the logoprosodic analysis set forth in this site. However, Professor Labuschagne's own website contains more recent logotechnical reflections and a detailed analysis of the each of the Psalms

b. Arithmological or Statistical Analysis

This research is currently focused in three areas:

i. Logotechnical Project (Professor Casper J. Labuschagne)

Professor Casper J. Labuschagne has undertaken a Logotechnical Analysis of the Entire Psalter on his own website. By kind permission, we offer a general introduction to his method here. Professor Labuschagne's work is of crucial importance in understanding the method of logoprosodic analysis employed in the data presented on this site.

ii. Word Count Project

We present a separate Word Count Project on its own page. Currently, word count data for most of the NT books are available for download in.doc and.xls (Excel) format, for scholars investigating this type of data. A longer, more technical statement of method, purposes, and expectations will be written in the near future, for pdf download. Each book of the bible will eventually have a summary page showing the actual word count (per manuscripts), any observable structural dynamics, including any relation of these numbers to sacred numbers, a brief discussion of findings, a revision date, and a contact link for submission of corrections and updates.

iii. Textual Basis for Numerical Analysis

We eventually hope to incorporate some of the valuable work that Dr. Reuben Swanson is doing in his Horizontal Line Synopsis series. We hope that this section might become a comparative resource at which scholars could see Codex Leningradensis, Aleppo, etc, all in parallel, similar to the work that Dr. Swanson is doing with Codex Vaticanus and the other New Testament manuscripts.

c. Musical Analysis

Mr. John Wheeler has been studying the traditional cantillation of the scriptures for many years, and we will provide a statement from him on the te'amim (cantillation marks) and their exegetical significance— as well as sheet music and sound files of key examples reported in the Logotechnical and Prosodic Analysis sections.

d. Analysis of Musicological Metaphor

It appears that all the numbers which the biblical writers used in structuring their text were more than simple structuring principles analogous to the regulation of syllables in a haiku or sonnet, but are related to a highly developed system of musicological metaphors which have been studied in various ancient Middle Eastern contexts by Professor Ernest McClain. Some of his work is available at ernestmcclain.net, and a very active discussion is ongoing at the BIBAL yahoogroup.

e. Rhetorical Analysis

Dr. Pieter van der Lugt has been studying the structure of biblical poetry for many years. Here, he examines the semantic and formal structures of the psalms of the Hebrew Bible and shows that they are composed of balanced cantos and strophes.

His work shows some of the value, in particular, of Professor Labuschagne's discoveries regarding quantitative structural or logotechnical structures in biblical texts.