How many authors does the Bible have?

[LA Ute]

Israeli software has some very interesting applications:

The new software analyzes style and word choices to distinguish parts of a single text written by different authors, and when applied to the Bible its algorithm teased out distinct writerly voices in the holy book.

[Jacob]

Israeli software has some very interesting applications:

That's very interesting. Now we can find out whether that terrorist really ghost-wrote Obamas book

[DapperDan]

Fascinating.

[DapperDan]

I wonder what this software would say about the BoM, D&C, and PoGP. I also wonder how many authors we should expect there to be.

[woot]

I wonder what this software would say about the BoM, D&C, and PoGP. I also wonder how many authors we should expect there to be.

One of the FARMS books that I read had a similar analysis and found that the authorship of the various BoM books was distinct in the all the ways one would expect if it were a completely authentic record written in just the way it describes.

[SeattleUte]

It's not news that the Bible has many authors.

[LA Ute]

It's not news that the Bible has many authors.

There you go again, bursting my bubble.

[DapperDan]

I wonder what this software would say about the BoM, D&C, and PoGP. I also wonder how many authors we should expect there to be.

This may not be knew to the learned group here, but I stumbled on to a 2008 study done by a group at Stanford, primarily Matthew Jockers, on BoM authorship. They used some fancy schmancy method that was developed to determine cancer types and analyzed the author likelihood of different BoM chapters to a pool of candidate authors, Rigdon, Pratt, Spalding, Cowdrey, & Isaiah-Malachi (KJV), along with two control authors from that era with BoM-ish writing styles.

The results:

Rigdon is either the first or second most probable candidate author in 197 out of 239 chapters; Spalding is either the first or second most likely candidate in 110 out of 239 chapters; and Isaiah-Malachi is first or second in 101 chapters. Cowdery appears thirty-seven times in first or second place and Pratt appears twenty-four times.

Overall only ten chapters lack a signal for Rigdon or Spalding in one of the two most probable positions and four of these ten chapters are chapters known to be derived from the Book of Isaiah, as discussed below. In other words, of the 239 chapters in the Book of Mormon, 229 show either the Rigdon or Spalding signal prominently. Together Rigdon and Spalding receive 64% of the combined first and second place assignments, Isaiah-Malachi receives 21% and other candidates or control-authors receive 15% (figure 3).

The authors also point out that Rigdon and Spalding's "signals" are lacking in the "116 pages" and that Spalding is very strong in Alma.

The pre-print version is free if anyone is interested in reading it. http://www.stanford.edu/~mjockers/pu...ntReassess.pdf

Oh, forgot to mention that JS was left out as a possible author because there aren't enough text samples of his writings to use. Turns out too many of his "writings" were dictated or both written by both JS and scribes in the same document. They did a follow-up study that confirmed they didn't have enough original material to include him in their previous study. The pre-print is also available online: http://www.stanford.edu/~mjockers/cg...drupal/node/41

[LA Ute]

This may not be knew to the learned group here, but I stumbled on to a 2008 study done by a group at Stanford, primarily Matthew Jockers, on BoM authorship. They used some fancy schmancy method that was developed to determine cancer types and analyzed the author likelihood of different BoM chapters to a pool of candidate authors, Rigdon, Pratt, Spalding, Cowdrey, & Isaiah-Malachi (KJV), along with two control authors from that era with BoM-ish writing styles.

The results:

The authors also point out that Rigdon and Spalding's "signals" are lacking in the "116 pages" and that Spalding is very strong in Alma.

The pre-print version is free if anyone is interested in reading it. http://www.stanford.edu/~mjockers/pu...ntReassess.pdf

Oh, forgot to mention that JS was left out as a possible author because there aren't enough text samples of his writings to use. Turns out too many of his "writings" were dictated or both written by both JS and scribes in the same document. They did a follow-up study that confirmed they didn't have enough original material to include him in their previous study. The pre-print is also available online: http://www.stanford.edu/~mjockers/cg...drupal/node/41

I sense a new theory may be developing: Rigdon, Spalding and Cowdrey all conspired together to write the BofM. Or maybe Joseph simply dictated it to them. My problem is that The Book of Spalding just doesn't have the same ring to it as The Book of Alma.

[Moliere]

The authors also point out that Rigdon and Spalding's "signals" are lacking in the "116 pages" and that Spalding is very strong in Alma.

they found them?!?!?!

[Moliere]

I sense a new theory may be developing: Rigdon, Spalding and Cowdrey all conspired together to write the BofM. Or maybe Joseph simply dictated it to them. My problem is that The Book of Spalding just doesn't have the same ring to it as The Book of Alma.

True, but there could be a connection between the book of spa[u]lding and the presence of basket ball courts in almost all meetinghouses.

[DapperDan]

they found them?!?!?!

No, the replacements for the lost pages don't contain many of Rigdon or Spalding's "signals". They said they have some thematic similarities to View of the Hebrews, but they didn't include the author as one of the candidates.

[DapperDan]

I sense a new theory may be developing: Rigdon, Spalding and Cowdrey all conspired together to write the BofM. Or maybe Joseph simply dictated it to them. My problem is that The Book of Spalding just doesn't have the same ring to it as The Book of Alma.

They felt Cowdrey's contributions were mostly in his editing.

[UtahDan]

I sense a new theory may be developing: Rigdon, Spalding and Cowdrey all conspired together to write the BofM. Or maybe Joseph simply dictated it to them. My problem is that The Book of Spalding just doesn't have the same ring to it as The Book of Alma.

I don't think anyone says Spaulding assisted. I think the work that Craig Criddle and others had done suggests that Rigdon had access to a copy of Manuscript Found. I don't think we'll ever know.

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[LA Ute]

I don't think anyone says Spaulding assisted. I think the work that Craig Criddle and others had done suggests that Rigdon had access to a copy of Manuscript Found. I don't think we'll ever know.

[YOUTUBE]utDU45lm210[/YOUTUBE]

I be teasing.

True, but there could be a connection between the book of spa[u]lding and the presence of basket ball courts in almost all meetinghouses.

Insights like this keep me coming back to this board.