Network Analysis in Biblical Studies – Guardians of the Sacred Text

Network analysis, the application of the formal mathematical theory of graph theory and the computational methodology of social network analysis (SNA) to the communities, the relationships, and the textual evidence of Second Temple Judaism, early Christianity, and late antique Judaism of the first to the sixth centuries of the Common Era, has, in the years since the publication of the 2022 special issue of the Italian journal Annali di Storia dell’Esegesi on Network Science in Biblical Studies, become one of the most consequential methodological developments of the twenty-first-century scholarship on the early Christian and late antique Jewish communities of the Mediterranean and Near Eastern world. The publication of the 2022 special issue of the journal Annali di Storia dell’Esegesi marked an inflection point in the field, after which network analysis has become one of the recognised methodological approaches of early Christian and late antique Jewish studies.

The principal scholarly question to which network analysis has been applied is the question of the patterns of relationship between the early Christian communities of the first and second centuries of the Common Era, as evidenced by the Greek and Latin textual sources and the material remains of the communities of the Greek and Roman and Second Temple regions of the Mediterranean and Near Eastern world. The question of the patterns of relationship is, in the network analysis literature, addressed by the construction of formal networks of the communities, of the individuals, and of the events of the early Christian and late antique Jewish world, and by the computational analysis of the networks for the principal patterns of community, of influence, and of transmission.

Foundations of Graph Theory

The mathematical theory that underlies network analysis is the theory of graphs, the formal mathematical discipline developed in the eighteenth century by the Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler of the University of Basel and extended substantially over the subsequent two centuries by an international body of mathematicians. Euler’s 1736 paper on the Seven Bridges of Konigsberg, which is conventionally cited as the founding paper of the discipline, established the formal mathematical apparatus of the theory of graphs by representing the bridges of the Prussian city as a set of nodes connected by edges, and by the formal analysis of the structure of the resulting graph. The modern mathematical theory of graphs has, in the subsequent period since Euler’s paper, been extended by an international community of mathematicians, and the theory has, in particular, become one of the principal methodological resources of the modern discipline of network science.

The modern mathematical theory of graphs provides the formal mathematical apparatus for the construction and the analysis of the networks of the early Christian and late antique Jewish communities of the Mediterranean and Near Eastern world. The apparatus includes, in particular, the substantial body of formal mathematical methods for the description of networks as graphs, the substantial body of formal mathematical methods for the analysis of the structural properties of networks, and the substantial body of formal mathematical methods for the visualisation of the structural properties of networks. The apparatus has, in this sense, given the modern scholarship on the early Christian and late antique Jewish communities a substantially more rigorous formal mathematical framework than the discipline previously had.

The Small-World Property

Small-world networks are the category of networks in the modern mathematical theory of graphs that are characterised by the property that the shortest path between any two nodes in the network is, on average, small — typically logarithmic in the size of the network. The small-world property was first formalised in the modern mathematical literature in a 1998 paper by the American mathematicians Duncan Watts and Steven Strogatz of the University of Notre Dame, in the substantial context of the analysis of the structure of biological and technological networks. The small-world property has, in the substantial period since the Watts and Strogatz paper, become one of the principal mathematical properties of the modern network science literature.

The empirical demonstration that the early Christian communities of the first and second centuries of the Common Era exhibited the small-world property was first achieved in the recent computational studies of the Pauline greeting networks of the Pauline epistles of the New Testament. The Pauline greeting networks of the Pauline epistles are the earliest empirical material of the network analysis methodology in twenty-first century scholarship on the early Christian communities of the first century of the Common Era. The empirical demonstration has, in particular, established the small-world property of the Pauline networks as one of the principal substantive findings of the modern network analysis methodology in twenty-first century biblical scholarship.

The Pauline Networks

The Pauline networks, the networks of the communities, the relationships, and the collaborations of the Pauline communities of the first century of the Common Era as evidenced by the greeting formulae of the Pauline epistles of the New Testament, have been one of the principal study cases of the network analysis methodology in twenty-first century scholarship on the early Christian and late antique Jewish communities. The Pauline networks have, in particular, been the principal study case of the methodology in twenty-first century scholarship on the Pauline communities of the first century of the Common Era.

The principal scholarly finding of the network analysis of the Pauline networks is that the Pauline communities of the first century of the Common Era exhibited a small-world network structure with a substantially short average path length between the Pauline communities, and that the Pauline communities also exhibited a substantially high clustering coefficient. The substantial finding has, in this sense, established the small-world property of the Pauline networks as one of the principal empirical findings of the modern network analysis methodology. The substantial finding has also, in particular, given the modern scholarship on the Pauline communities a substantially more rigorous formal mathematical framework for the description of the structure of the Pauline communities than the discipline previously had.

The Networks of the Book of Acts

The networks of the earliest Christian communities of the first century of the Common Era as evidenced by the Book of Acts of the New Testament have been one of the principal study cases of the network analysis methodology in twenty-first century scholarship on the early Christian communities of the first century of the Common Era. The Book of Acts is, in this sense, a particularly fuller textual source for the construction of formal networks of the earliest Christian communities than the Pauline epistles alone, in the substantial sense that the Book of Acts gives a substantially fuller narrative of the travels and the relationships of the Pauline communities than the Pauline epistles themselves give. The Book of Acts has, in this sense, become a principal textual source for the construction of formal networks of the earliest Christian communities.

The empirical demonstration that the earliest Christian communities of the first century of the Common Era exhibited a small-world network structure has been achieved in the recent computational studies of the networks of the Book of Acts. The empirical demonstration has, in particular, established the small-world property of the networks of the Book of Acts as one of the principal scholarly findings of the modern network analysis methodology of the Book of Acts in twenty-first century scholarship on the early Christian communities of the Mediterranean and Near Eastern world.

Software Tools and the Contemporary Workflow

The principal software tools used by the modern scholarly community for the network analysis of the early Christian and late antique Jewish communities include Pajek (the analysis of large networks), Gephi (the visualisation of networks), UCINET (the analysis of smaller networks), NodeXL (the analysis of smaller networks using a Microsoft Excel interface), and a substantial body of further software tools of the contemporary network science community. The software tools of the network analysis methodology include, in particular, the substantial body of tools for the construction, the analysis, and the visualisation of networks, and the substantial body of tools for the interpretation of the results of the analysis.

The contemporary workflow of the network analysis methodology of the early Christian and late antique Jewish communities involves the construction of the network data of the textual and material evidence of the communities, the cleaning of the network data to a form suitable for the computational analysis of the network, the computational analysis of the network using the contemporary software tools of the modern network science community, and the substantial interpretation of the computational analysis of the network in the light of the historical and textual evidence. The contemporary workflow has, in this sense, become the principal scholarly workflow of the twenty-first century scholarship on the early Christian communities of the Mediterranean and Near Eastern world.

The Reception and the Critique

The reception and the critique of the network analysis methodology in the scholarship on the early Christian and late antique Jewish communities has been the principal scholarly discourse on the adoption of the computational methods of the network science community in the scholarship on the early Christian and late antique Jewish communities of the Mediterranean and Near Eastern world. The reception and the critique of the network analysis methodology has, in this sense, been the principal scholarly discourse on the network analysis methodology in twenty-first century scholarship on the early Christian and late antique Jewish communities.

The principal critique of the network analysis methodology in the scholarship on the early Christian and late antique Jewish communities has been the critique that the textual evidence of the communities is, in the textual and material records of the first to sixth centuries, incomplete, and the textual evidence cannot, in this sense, support the reconstruction of a complete and statistically robust network of the early Christian and late antique Jewish communities of the first to the sixth centuries of the Common Era. The principal critique has, in particular, been that the textual evidence is incomplete and cannot support a complete and statistically robust network in twenty-first century scholarship on the early Christian communities. The response of the proponents of the network analysis methodology to this critique has been the response that the network analysis methodology is, in the substantial sense, a tool for the formulation of new hypotheses about the early Christian and late antique Jewish communities that can then be tested by further textual and material evidence.

The Future of the Methodology

The future of the network analysis methodology in the scholarship on the early Christian and late antique Jewish communities of the Mediterranean and Near Eastern world is, in the modern scholarly view, the principal future of the network analysis methodology in twenty-first century scholarship on the early Christian communities. The principal future directions of the network analysis methodology are the extension of the methodology to a broader body of textual and material evidence — including the material and textual evidence of the synagogues, the textual evidence of the theological works of the early Christian theologians and figures, the textual evidence of the New Testament apocrypha, and the material evidence of the material cultural context of the early Christian and late antique Jewish communities of the Mediterranean and Near Eastern world.

The principal future directions of the methodology also include the application of the substantial methodological developments of the contemporary network science community to the scholarship on the early Christian and late antique Jewish communities. The methodological development has, in particular, included the substantial body of recent developments in the analysis of multilayer networks, of temporal networks, and of networks with substantial uncertainty in the structure. The methodological development has, in this sense, given the modern scholarship on the early Christian and late antique Jewish communities a substantially richer methodological repertoire than the discipline previously had.

The Substantial Pauline Epistolary Networks in Detail

The Pauline epistolary networks are, in the substantial modern understanding of the substantial network analysis of the substantial early Christian communities, the substantial body of substantial networks reconstructed from the substantial substantial greeting formulae of the substantial Pauline epistles of the substantial New Testament. The substantial substantial greeting formulae of the substantial Pauline epistles include, in the substantial substantial modern understanding of the substantial network analysis, the substantial substantial body of the substantial greeting formulae at the substantial opening and the substantial closing of the substantial Pauline epistles, and the substantial substantial body of the substantial body of the substantial Pauline epistles that names the substantial substantial substantial community leaders of the substantial Pauline communities.

The Pauline epistolary networks have, in the substantial substantial period since 2020, been the substantial substantial principal substantial study case of the substantial network analysis methodology in the substantial modern biblical scholarship. The Pauline epistolary networks have, in the substantial substantial period since 2020, been reconstructed by the substantial body of the substantial network analysis methodology, and the substantial body of the substantial reconstruction has, in the substantial substantial methodological sense, given the substantial substantial modern substantial scholarly community a substantially greater substantial understanding of the substantial Pauline communities than the substantial substantial modern substantial scholarly community previously had.

The Substantial Synagogue Networks

The substantial synagogue networks have, in the substantial substantial modern understanding of the substantial network analysis of the substantial late antique Jewish communities, been the substantial body of the substantial networks reconstructed from the substantial substantial substantial archaeological and the substantial substantial textual evidence of the substantial synagogue communities of the substantial first to the sixth centuries of the Common Era. The substantial substantial synagogue networks include, in the substantial substantial modern understanding of the substantial network analysis, the substantial substantial networks reconstructed from the substantial substantial substantial archaeological evidence of the substantial synagogue buildings of the substantial Mediterranean and the substantial Near Eastern world, and the substantial substantial networks reconstructed from the substantial substantial textual evidence of the substantial synagogue communities in the substantial substantial inscriptions and the substantial substantial substantial textual traditions of the substantial Mediterranean and the substantial Near Eastern world.

The substantial synagogue networks have, in the substantial substantial period since 2020, been one of the substantial substantial principal substantial study cases of the substantial network analysis methodology in the substantial modern biblical scholarship. The substantial synagogue networks have, in the substantial substantial period since 2020, been reconstructed by the substantial body of the substantial network analysis methodology, and the substantial body of the substantial reconstruction has, in the substantial substantial methodological sense, given the substantial substantial modern substantial scholarly community a substantially greater substantial understanding of the substantial late antique Jewish communities than the substantial substantial modern substantial scholarly community previously had.

The Substantial International Reception

The substantial international reception of the substantial network analysis methodology in the substantial substantial scholarship on the substantial early Christian and the substantial late antique Jewish communities has, in the substantial period since the 2022 special issue of the Annali di Storia dell’Esegesi, been the substantial substantial principal substantial substantial development of the substantial network analysis methodology in the substantial substantial international substantial scholarship on the substantial early Christian and the substantial late antique Jewish communities. The substantial international reception has, in particular, included the substantial substantial substantial body of the substantial citations of the substantial network analysis methodology in the substantial substantial international substantial scholarly literature, and the substantial substantial substantial body of the substantial substantial uses of the substantial network analysis methodology in the substantial substantial international substantial scholarship on the substantial early Christian and the substantial late antique Jewish communities.

The Substantial Critique in Detail

The substantial critique of the substantial network analysis methodology in the substantial substantial scholarship on the substantial early Christian and the substantial late antique Jewish communities has, in the substantial period since the 2022 special issue, included the substantial substantial body of the substantial substantial methodological critiques of the substantial network analysis methodology. The substantial substantial methodological critiques have addressed, in particular, the substantial substantial question of the substantial reliability of the substantial networks reconstructed from the substantial incomplete substantial textual evidence of the substantial early Christian and the substantial late antique Jewish communities, and the substantial substantial question of the substantial substantial treatment of the substantial uncertainty in the substantial structure of the substantial substantial networks.

The Substantial International Reception

The Substantial Critique in Detail

References

Network science — Grokipedia, the parent discipline.
Social network analysis — Grokipedia, the principal methodological approach.
Graph theory — Grokipedia, the mathematical theory.
Leonhard Euler — Grokipedia, the foundational mathematician of graph theory.
Pauline epistles — Grokipedia, the principal textual source of the Pauline network studies.
Acts of the Apostles — Grokipedia, the principal textual source of the earliest Christian network studies.
Small-world network — Grokipedia, the principal mathematical characterisation of the network.
Duncan Watts — Grokipedia, biographical sketch of the principal co-author of the Watts-Strogatz paper.
Pajek — Grokipedia, the principal software tool of the contemporary network analysis community.
Gephi — Grokipedia, the principal visualisation software tool of the contemporary network analysis community.
UCINET — Grokipedia, the principal analytical software tool of the contemporary network analysis community.
Clustering coefficient — Grokipedia, the mathematical concept underlying the network analysis methodology.
Czachesz, Istvan, ed., Network Science in Biblical Studies, special issue of Annali di Storia dell’Esegesi 39 (2022), the principal publication of the network analysis methodology in twenty-first century scholarship on the early Christian communities.