Web-Based Hypertext as a Medium for Biblical Teaching

Journal of Data Mining & Digital Humanities, 2017

This contribution to a special issue on “Computer-aided processing of intertextuality” in ancient texts will illustrate how using digital tools to interact with the Hebrew Bible offers new promising perspectives for visualizing the texts and for performing tasks in education and research. This contribution explores how the corpus of the Hebrew Bible created and maintained by the Eep Talstra Centre for Bible and Computer can support new methods for modern knowledge workers within the field of digital humanities and theology be applied to ancient texts, and how this can be envisioned as a new field of digital intertextuality. The article first describes how the corpus was used to develop the Bible Online Learner as a persuasive technology to enhance language learning with, in, and around a database that acts as the engine driving interactive tasks for learners. Intertextuality in this case is a matter of active exploration and ongoing practice. Furthermore, interactive corpus-technolo...

Charles Ess, ed. Critical Thinking and the Bible in the Age of New Media. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 2004

Not long ago, a student of mine described a Bible study software package she had recently purchased for about one hundred dollars. This software package, which advertises itself as a PC-based "reference library," contains complete texts of four versions of the Bible, cross reference resources, a Bible dictionary, an encyclopedia, two commentaries, word study reference works, and biblical language reference helps. It also includes maps, study guides, a reading plan, and a photo collection of notable geographical sites from the ancient near east. It even provides a place for "personal notes." My student described this new acquisition not with the excitement of someone who has made a remarkable discovery but in a matter of fact way, almost as a parenthetical aside in an ongoing conversation. This incident is noteworthy not for being unusual but precisely because it typifies a generation of young adult students of the Bible who stand poised at the outset of a new millennium. She, like her contemporaries, is aptly described as a child of the digital age (Honen). Conversant and comfortable with personal computers and a host of software applications, she knows how to communicate electronically and has surfed the Internet for business, research, and recreation. Thanks to the technologies of digitization and computer-mediated communication (most strikingly evident in the Internet and the World

This paper will briefly survey the historical development of linking systems in the Christian Bible, from their theological foundations to their formation in the architecture of the printed book. It will then examine the apogee of intra-Biblical linking systems in the Thompson Chain Reference Bible, particularly its chain-referencing system for thematic linking between texts. Finally, it will use this mature print technology to consider the state of the hyperlink in current Web-interfaces. It will show that while in many ways modern attempts at a dynamic hyperlink surpass this elaborate linking system in functionality, in a few key functions this old print technology out-performs what is commonly and readily available in current Web-browsers. In pursing this comparative analysis we aim to demonstrate the importance of understanding the organization and navigational structure of the codex in designing digital reading environments that will meet and surpass the affordances of print.

2015

The Christian Bible is now available in thousands of digital forms, re-imagined for electronic reading on mobile, tablet and desktop screens. This article introduces findings from an online survey of digital Bible users with more than 250 responses, analysing their demographics, reading practices, motivations and experiences. Survey responses are analysed in conversation with recent debates among Christian commentators and broader arguments in the study of e- reading in education and other contexts. Religious e-reading shows some distinctive and unexpected features, in comparison to reading in other contexts, and this article proposes initial hypotheses about the impact of digital media on sacred text.

2018

This article pursues two objectives. First, it tries to explain why Bible software is still not accepted as an indispensable tool for textual analysis. Second, it suggests that modern Hebrew databases can truly impact the analytic methodology of biblical scholars and help to verify and falsify interpretative suggestions. To achieve these two objectives, I will first describe the role Bible software plays in today’s scholarship. By contrasting the aids that Bible software offers with the analytic needs of biblical scholars, it is possible to show clearly what current electronic tools need if they are to play an essential methodological role in the analytic work of the scholar. The second part of the article will then illustrate, in some detail, what the Hebrew database of the Eep Talstra Centre of Bible and Computer (ETCBC) could offer today to the Old Testament scholar and how a future implementation into Bible software could deliver an electronic tool that becomes indispensable for...

Hungarian Studies Yearbook

Bible concordances lead Bible readers with rendering words and phrases of the Holy Bible in alphabetical listings and show where the terms occur throughout all books of Scripture. With cross-references for verses, concordances make it easy to understand the meaning of terms and the context in which those words are used. In Hungarian Bible studies several translations of the Bible are available (also online) and some of the contemporary translations are provided with on-the-fly concordances. Online versions of the Bible translations can easily build KWIC-concordances but not in an equal way. The study shows different approaches to online Bible concordance of the Hungarian translations to be found online and also tries to illustrate bottlenecks of concordance making on the off-line concordance being built to the so called ÚRK Bible (Újonnan Revideált Biblia – Newly Revised Bible). The obstacles in this concordance are connected with terminological and lexicographic approaches as this ...

Negotiating Religious Visibility in Digital Media, 2015

This chapter focuses on one thriving sector of the digital religious landscape: the rapidly-growing marketplace of digital forms of sacred text. What kinds of products are being created, what are their publishers trying to achieve, and how are these new texts reinterpreting centuries-old traditions of religious reading? These questions have provoked much interest from religious practitioners, programmers, theologians and scholars of sacred texts, so the study of digital sacred text offers an unusually rich opportunity for digital social scientists to engage with other disciplines and discourses inside and outside the academy. I will examine a series of case studies of Protestant and Catholic Bibles - Logos and Verbum study software, produced by the Faithlife Corporation, and the Bible App and the Bible App for Kids, produced by YouVersion. I will then discuss the circulation of texts from these Bible products through social media and small-group community software. Finally, I will summarise some current analyses of the significance of digital Bibles, including reservations raised by Christian critics. My intention is to map some of the diversity that now exists in this complex landscape and demonstrate the continuity - and discontinuity - of these new digital texts with older publishing traditions. I will suggest areas for further research at the end of this chapter.

Since the 1970's computers are used in the service of textual research and much has been achieved, but there are also drawbacks to the electronic advancement. This paper discusses the conceptual drawbacks for the study of textual criticism. It is also suggested that the use of computers may result in the loss of certain learning skills. The abuse of computers also led to the development of a branch of pseudo-research, and finally, the trustworthiness of electronic tools, especially Wikipedia, is discussed.

Disclaimer: Unless otherwise noted, the websites discussed in this article were active on the day of publication. Due to the transitory nature of some websites, some of these links may no longer be active. The opinions expressed in these websites are not necessarily those of the author or the Journal. Abstract The Internet is a rich storage house for studying the role of the Bible in contemporary American and Western culture. The examination of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19) on the Internet demonstrates that biblical studies gain from the critical interaction with the digital world. Many religiously oriented Web pages mention the biblical story when they discuss the issue of homosexuality. Others include archaeological findings to prove the historicity for the existence and destruction of the two cities. Numerous Web pages give evidence for the commercial, cultural, and fantastic significance of Sodom and Gomorrah. The study shows that contemporary culture and thus the digital worl...

Teaching Theology & Religion, 1999

Information technology is bringing change to theological education. Computer‐mediated instruction has been employed for teaching basic factual materials and for providing study resources. Information technology has been helpful as an instructional aid using the drill and practice format, but how can it promote learning in more complex areas of knowledge acquisition such as analysis, synthesis, and creative judgment? Gordon‐Conwell Theological Seminary in Charlotte, N.C. developed an online course to teach Hebrew exegesis. A theory‐driven pedagogy was employed that used a Web‐based instructional design to promote asynchronous learning, collaborative projects, and peer review. This article presents the rationale and design for the class, a narrative of the class experience, and an evaluation of results. Outcomes of the class experience and suggestions for application of technology to other subject areas are included.