Linguistic Communication Channels Reveal Connections between Texts: The New Testament and Greek Literature

Abstract

We studied two fundamental linguistic channels—the sentences and the interpunctions channels—and showed they can reveal deeper connections between texts. The applied theory does not follow the actual paradigm of linguistic studies. As a study case, we considered the Greek New Testament, with the purpose of determining mathematical connections between its texts and possible differences in the writing style (mathematically defined) of the writers and in the reading skill required of their readers. The analysis was based on deep-language parameters and communication/information theory. To set the New Testament texts in the larger Greek classical literature, we considered texts written by Aesop, Polybius, Flavius Josephus, and Plutarch. The results largely confirmed what scholars have found about the New Testament texts, therefore giving credibility to the theory. The Gospel according to John is very similar to the fables written by Aesop. Surprisingly, the Epistle to the Hebrews and Apocalypse are each other’s “photocopies” in the two linguistic channels and not linked to all other texts. These two texts deserve further study by historians of the early Christian church literature at the level of meaning, readers, and possible Old Testament texts that might have influenced them. The theory can guide scholars to study any literary corpus.