When I created Mapping God’s Bloodline, I had no idea what a turning point it would be for this website. Until then, few had visited the site. Once a few influential people shared it on social media, I discovered how visualization could turn a boring, tedious subject into something people find highly engaging.
Previously only top-end software would allow students of scripture to easily find where God is called “Lamb,” “Word,” “Prince,” “Son,” “He,” “I,” etc. Timothy, the developer of Bible Analyzer, recently completed efforts to tag references like those for over 25,000 words to offer similar functionality in a low-cost program.
The growth of Logos Bible Software in recent years has transformed their downtown community of Bellingham, Washington. With the release of Logos 5 they have transformed the nature of Bible study technology. I decided to do a thorough review of the new version because it partly fulfills the vision I have described on this blog for the past few years. Logos is doing for the Bible what Google’s Knowledge Graph does for the web: it connects words to what they represent so you can discover relevant facts more quickly.
When R.A. Torrey compiled his Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, I doubt he could have envisioned the ways in which those hundreds of thousands of cross references would take shape years later. Inspired by Chris Harrison’s rainbow-arc visualization which used a smaller set of cross references, OpenBible.info applied the shape to Torrey’s massive database. Using a combination of these data sources, I added my own summary level analysis of reference frequency in each chapter of the Bible.
Now, OpenBible.info has gone one step further, this time apparently inspired by a cross-reference layout illustrated at the crossway blog back in 2006. This new interactive visualization is a grid layout with books (or groups of books) along the top and left-hand side. Each grid cell represents the cross references between those books.
What makes this visualization much more interesting than previous graphics is the way each grid cell is colored. Red is a link from a New Testament book, blue for the Old Testament, green for major divisions of the Bible, gray indicates a cross-reference from a verse in one chapter to another verse in the same chapter, and purple indicates references between chapters in the same book.
As soon as you start getting “interactive” with it, you discover how the color intensity is produced, forming the heat map effect in the grid above. For instance, if you choose to show references from John to Isaiah, you see details of how the passages in those books connect to one another. More lines between them result in more color displayed in the larger grid.
Such an interactive visualization makes it far simpler to navigate and understand Torrey’s massive dataset. Even if you are not especially interested in exploring these details, everyone should be able to appreciate the message that this and earlier cross-reference visualizations share in common: that the words given to us by God are deeply woven together throughout all the times and cultures in which they were transcribed.
Most Christians have heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls and their importance to biblical scholarship, but few have ever actually seen them. Now, that no longer has to be the case. The Israel Museum has teamed up with Google to not only make the images of the scrolls available digitally, but to make them searchable with interactive English translation. Not only can you search the text on the Museum’s website, but now it will show up in Google search results (including in custom search results on soulliberty.com) as well. They have even put a little bit of “flare” to it by animating the paper appear to be unrolling as you scroll through it. Check it out here: http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/
When I first began exploring word clouds as a means of visualizing biblical data, the result using Wordle was little better than a jumble of words sized according to frequency, with random colors and angular variations to add interest. It’s a decent proof of concept, but as I said earlier, it fails as a design concept unless it’s intelligently combined with other elements. Since then, I have discovered more well-developed technology that can “auto-magically” create word clouds which are good enough to stand alone as an artistic element.
At least one tool, Tagxedo, bridges the gap between Wordle’s overly simplistic automation and the manual processes required for intricate typographic designs such as maps made from words placed by hand, one by one. Its strength is in its ability to layout and color the words based on an uploaded image. I have re-created my original word cloud using words in the KJV (with some highly common words intentionally removed), laid out using an image of Jesus wearing a crown of thorns.
This tool allows you to save images in a range of useful formats as well as create your own products using that design. Interestingly, when I shared the above image with the Tagxedo creator, he pointed out the fact that the Tagxedo store features a few products already designed with Bible words, albeit from a different image of Jesus.
What I particularly like about this concept is that the usual images of Jesus are merely artistic imaginations which may not have anything at all to do with how he really looked. Instead, we get a truer, clearer picture of the Savior from the words he spoke though the writers of scripture. How much more appropriate is it to paint his image with those words?
Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me.
-Psalm 40:7
I’m a little late joining the bandwagon on celebrating the 400th anniversary of the KJV, but here’s my contribution to the mix. I found an interesting web site called Bible Reader’s Museum which, among other things, has extensive listings of Bible versions throughout time. Being the chart junkie that I am, I converted their English Bible version list (used by permission) to an interactive graph of versions over time. It begins at quarter-century intervals and then changes to smaller intervals as you filter out the years. The list at the bottom filters along with it, making it simple to find one or several, then click the name to go to that version’s website. It’s amazing to see just how many translations there have been over the years. Take a look!
Follow the genealogy of Jesus from the creation of Adam and Eve through Noah, the tribes of Israel, King David, and finally Joseph and Mary. Zoom out for a broader perspective or zoom in to examine finer details.
I’ve spent some time already on this blog talking about the ideas behind MetaV: what it is, why it’s different, etc. Now, the map and timeline data is complete and the first visual exploration tool is here. This work is not licensed, so feel free to share, copy, and modify as you wish.
I’ve been out shopping for cars recently, and it has reminded me of one of the shortcomings I’ve noticed among Christian websites I tend to visit. As usual, I intend to fill this gap through our efforts at SoulLiberty.com. Let me explain.
Something I appreciate about car websites is that they put a lot of effort into showing you the main features of each model. I can see the inside and outside, and often do a 360-degree tour. In each view, I can see certain areas featured; click on them and find out more details, see a video, etc. Of course, a lot of this is designed to dazzle the buyer into an emotional state where he simply must have that car becuause “it’s just so cool!”
But aren’t certain things about the Bible just “so cool?” I happen to think so. Then, why not present things in such a way that conveys that feeling to the new or maturing Christian student? If a storytelling professor can make statistics look like the most interesting thing in the world, can’t geeky web designers do the same with the most epic and fascinating story of all time?
Guttenberg invented the printing press for one big reason: to distribute the Bible to as many people as possible. That was a time when Christians were the master of new technology intended to carry out God’s calling. Today, the most high-tech ideas are motivated by material gain or fulfilling other carnal lusts. How can we begin to turn this back around?
One place to start is by implementing today’s technology to aid in teaching Biblical ideas. Yes, churches and ministries are always adopting new tools, but they were new to the world 5-10 years ago. One of my 2011 goals is to bring the Bible itself into a tool that is barely over a month old. That’s the future. Right now, we have some catching up to do.
Go back to the car example: our website applied that years-old idea to the Ark of the Covenant. While a clip from Indiana Jones might invoke the “that’s so cool” thoughts, I felt it would be better to make something different. What we have now is a 3-D model of the Ark that can be explored from the exterior and interior. You can click on icons to learn about key features, just like that Corvette you’ve been drooling over. It’s interesting, informative, and biblical. It links yesterday to today through technology and by linking the Ark’s symbolism to our daily Christian walk.
What I am not advocating here is a wordly approach to evangelism with focus groups, high-pressure marketing campaigns, and so on. There’s nothing wrong with advertising, however. Isn’t that what evangelism is anyway – advertising the Gospel far and wide? I’m also not arguing that putting a little more glitz into a website will have a direct impact on the visitor’s journey to salvation. I’m simply pleading for a higher standard. Give God your best each and every day in everything you do, and it will eventually rub off on others.
For novice bloggers and advanced web programmers, there are two good tools available to automatically create a pop-up showing the text of Bible verses referenced on your site, as in: Rom 1:20. One is RefTagger from Logos Bible Software. The other is VerseClick, recently made available at AV1611.com. If you are interested in using a tool like this, here are some things to consider.
UPDATE: after writing this review, I learned of the BLB ScriptTagger from the Blue Letter Bible website. It is well worth considering along with the two mentioned here.
Highly customizable: If you know some basic web concepts like CSS, you can match the styles in the pop-up window to your own site theme. There is an optional toolbox to allow visitors to choose their preferred translation or web developers can choose the default version using the simple setup form. There are many other options shown on the RefTagger website.
Works with most syntax: There are all kinds of ways to reference Bible verses, making it difficult for a computer to properly recognize them. RefTagger works with most common syntax and it also works with some developing web standards such as BibleRef markup.
Integrates with Logos Software: Next to each verse link, you’ll see an icon that takes the user to that verse within Logos Bible Software, provided the user has this software on their computer. To me, this is an unnecessary distraction. Few users are likely to want this feature and it adds a button that gets in the way of the normal flow of reading. It undermines the very purpose of the tool: to provide a seamless way to look up verses referenced without distracting the reader with a quote box or going to another resource in the middle of a paragraph. UPDATE: I am told that this feature is optional (see comments), but it is enabled by default and may be difficult for the average blogger to disable.
Performance and Simplicity: It is quite simple to install this tool on any site. Just pick a few options and paste a line of code in the appropriate place. Unfortunately, its host of options slows down page loading. While it performs adequately in most cases, it could be much better in my opinion.
Works with most syntax: Like RefTagger, most reference methods are supported. It doesn’t recognize BibleRef markup, which is how RefTagger recognizes whole-chapter tags. VerseClick takes you to the whole chapter when a verse is clicked and since both tools limit pop-ups to just a few verses, this becomes a moot point.
Performance and Simplicity: As mentioned, I have found VerseClick to perform better overall than RefTagger. It is just as simple to install and use: one line of code to cut-and-paste.
If you aren’t using either of these on your Christian website, I highly recommend adding this functionality for your visitors. It puts Scripture at their fingertips within whatever point the author is making. I use VerseClick for its use of only the time-tested KJV which ensures the verse shown is an accurate and complete translation, as well as for its superior download performance and absence of the distracting Logos button. The color styles of VerseClick happen to match the ones used on SoulLiberty.com, but if you find the yellow clashes with your design, I’d recommend e-mailing the creator to request the option to customize the CSS.
A lot of bloggers are using word clouds for various features now, mainly to make common post tags stand out. I happen to think it’s a fad. Like Microsoft’s WordArt, it can do some nifty things but doesn’t really rise to the level of artwork that would be required for a valuable design aesthetic.
That said, it can be fun to play around with these ideas to see just how far you can go or perhaps lead to a better idea later. In that spirit, I present to you my word cloud made using Wordle and the text of the KJV (with words like thee, thou, ye, etc. removed).
We have come a long way from the days when you had to choose between an unwieldy Bible atlas or else limit yourself to a handful of maps in the back of your everyday Bible. With the proliferation of free online mapping tools hosted by Google, Yahoo, MapQuest, and others, we have the ability to overlay practically any information we want onto satellite imagery or simple region outlines. Naturally, some industrious Christians have incorporated some of the information from that old atlas into interactive maps.
One of these is BibleMap.org which does a great job of helping you explore the places mentioned in a particular chapter of the Bible that you may be reading or studying at the time. Another approach is that of OpenBible.info which allows users to download place marks for Google Earth, either for the entire Bible or individual books. One limitation of each of these is that it is either difficult or impossible to see every place all at once without downloading additional software.
That’s going to change right here, right now. Thanks to a powerful tool called Tableau Public recently made free for limited use on open-source data, we can download a file from a site like OpenBible.info and make some interesting comparisons. We can vary the colors and sizes of each place mark, filter for a particular place or book, and much more that can help us discover new insights or rediscover old ones. For example, the New Testament more heavily references northern regions and … wait a second! Since when was Spain referenced in the Bible? And, just where are Gog and Magog, anyway?
Here are a few tips for exploring the information. Click the legend to show only New or Old Testament references. Hover over a place mark to see more info, or click on it to see all the references associated with that place. Click-and-drag to select more than one place. Use the arrow icon at the bottom to allow for zooming and panning around the map. Choose one or more books for other filter options. Click the name of a place in the data sheet to reveal its location on the map. Most of all, have fun seeing the Bible in a whole new way! Note: the map may take a while to load.
There are a few things to bear in mind, however. First, the country divisions on this map correlate to present boundaries, not the boundaries as they were in the past. Bodies of water or whole countries are shown as a single place mark, which can make things somewhat difficult to interpret. I did not compile the original data, but as near as I can tell it is limited to explicit references of a place by name; it does not include verses which describe an event which took place in a particular location but doesn’t mention the place by name. Lastly, places mentioned during a time period before Noah’s flood are not shown since the global flood would have reshaped the landscape enough to make its location impossible to accurately identify.
There is a lot of work being done in the area of Bible translation to reach people of different languages. One language we typically don’t think about is the digital language read by computers. We have many options available to read and download digital editions, but as I have written before, these formats have limits. MetaV is a new digital version which makes it easier for programmers and non-programmers alike to link each word to useful metadata and perform a wider range of analysis.
Metadata is information that describes other information. Take a photograph, for example. The picture captures information on a scene which, when described some other way, may take 1,000 words or more. Information describing that photograph (metadata) might include: photographer, date, film type, camera settings, and location. Modern software uses this type of information to efficiently organize large sets of digital photos. MetaV organizes large sets of words using similar methods.
The main limitation in freely available digital copies of the Bible is that each line contains a full verse. What I have done with MetaV is break it down to individual words, with columns describing more about each one. Currently, it can tell whether the word is italicized, what punctuation follows it, whether it is the beginning or end of a parenthetical statement, and whether it is at the beginning of a new paragraph. Of course, it also stores the book, chapter, verse, and position within the verse.
This serves as a foundational building block to efficiently add more pieces of metadata for simple searches and advanced analysis. First, I’ll add Strong’s numbers. Then, location information, genealogical relationships, speakers, timelines, and nearly anything else that can be linked back to the root text. The diagram below illustrates how this information will be joined together.
Even before any new modules are included, some useful analysis can be performed, such as: readability statistics for individual books (or any subset of your choosing), writing style analysis (How long are the sentences and paragraphs? What words does the author favor?), or just simple word counts (How many italicized words are there? How many unique words are there?).
MetaV is a new translation in the true sense of the word – it “slides” the words to a new position to make it more readable by a database language. I have done nothing to remove words or change their meaning (as too many modern translations do) and have taken great care to ensure each programming detail is correct in every way. In the coming weeks and months I will be publishing results of some analysis made simpler by this new tool, so stay tuned!
Update 6-11-2011: Version 1 has been deprecated. You can download MetaV 2.0 here.
Sometimes we read about an object such as Noah’s Ark or the Temple and wonder how big it was or how it compares to something else we’re familiar with. A unique thing about the Christian Scriptures as compared with other holy books is that it contains far more detail and specificity about the things it describes. For example, we know the general dimensions of Noah’s ark, how many days passed between each major milestone of that event, and how many people were on board. We know how many of each implement was in the Tabernacle (and later the Temple) and how many people were in each camp in the wilderness.
We are getting into a time period in which it is possible to quickly make some calculations about these objects and compare them to things we know of today. Search engines are now in the process of better organizing the world’s knowledge in ways that make them not only easy to find, but easy to connect to other things that are similar. One such tool is called WolframAlpha.
They have a number of good examples showing the powerful capabilities of their “computational knowledge engine.” I want to discuss how such an engine might be used to aid in Bible study. Consider the Ark of the Covenant. Just how big was it? Well, with the right data structure, one could search for that ark and would be presented with some “fast facts” about it, like the materials used to build it, where it went, and of course, its dimensions. With those dimensions, it would be possible to set up a programmed interface to plug those numbers into WolframAlpha to find its volume — 5.6 cubits^3.
But, that’s not all. It will also convert that result to something more relevant to us today: 19 cubic feet or 142 gallons. Currently WolframAlpha doesn’t make a lot of volumetric comparisons, but give it time: it’s still very new. One thing they can do, however, is compare lengths. So, an input of the perimeter of Solomon’s Temple would tell you that you’d walk the same distance by going around the Temple as you would by walking from the nose to tail of a Boeing 747, or a little more than the perimeter of a city block in Manhattan. This takes something that is measured and communicated in an old, archaic unit and makes it more understandable to the modern reader.
Really, anything in the Bible that can be quantified can be calculated and compared to other numbers. As the big-name search engines attempt to organize and correlate all the world’s knowledge, we have a wonderful opportunity to do the same with all the Biblical knowledge of the ages. We can make outdated units more interesting and relevant and use new technologies to help us better understand the things we read about God and his dealings with mankind.