Tuesday 29 August 2017

A thought on Exodus and language

There is lots more to learn in the 40% of the chapters I have not yet read. What do you think of this data? These are the number of verses per chapter left in Exodus. The third column is the % that is automatically guessed. Are those near the bottom of the list indicative of a change in language? I just acquired a copy of Bill Morrow's new book, An Introduction to Biblical Law. It looks like a very clear textbook. One of his example sections is Exodus 21-24 traditionally called the Book of the Covenant. Chapter 24 is here. Perhaps its language pushed chapter 23 to 54% guessed (in Hebrew word pairs or more). But 22 and 21 are far down the list.

Exodus 39 43 0.56
Exodus 14 31 0.55
Exodus 23 33 0.54
Exodus  4 31 0.54
Exodus 38 31 0.5
Exodus  5 23 0.49
Exodus 17 16 0.48
Exodus  2 25 0.46
Exodus 28 43 0.44
Exodus 27 21 0.34
Exodus 22 30 0.33
Exodus 36 38 0.3
Exodus 21 37 0.26
Exodus 26 37 0.24

To be fair to the somewhat random order in which I have seeded this reading, at the moment 80 of the remain chapters are 50% or more guessed in Hebrew word pairs or more, 141 are between 40 and 49.9%, 72 are between 30 and 39.9% and that leaves 62 below 30%.

Perhaps chapter 23 will be next - let's see what effect it has on chapters 22 and 21.

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