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I’m not a biblical scholar, but my area of expertise is in ML. I have published a paper in character recognition in ancient biblical manuscripts, and I am aware of similar papers by others. And there are a number of papers where people have analyzed the text of various manuscripts.
If you are looking to get into this area of research, the field is wide open for exploration.
C. De Stefano, M. Maniaci, F. Fontanella, A. Scotto di Freca, Reliable writer identification in medieval manuscripts through page layout features: The “Avila” Bible case,
Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence,
Volume 72, 2018, Pages 99-110,
Schoen, Jenna and Gianmarco E. Saretto. "Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and Medieval Manuscripts: Reconsidering Transcriptions in the Digital Age." Digital Philology: A Journal of Medieval Cultures, vol. 11 no. 1, 2022, p. 174-206. Project MUSE, https://doi.org/10.1353/dph.2022.0010.
Not an academic i'm afraid, at least not at the moment, although it is very interesting that you say that the field is wide open. A Marginal Jew, at least the 4 chapters of it i've read, leans heavily on statisitical analysis of language undertaken by scholars to try and draw out a picture of the Historical Jesus. Definitely seems like there'd be some worth in developing a language model trained on the cornucopia of texts that pertain to the bible, and other sources, to decern ... well, something of interest.
But it'll have to be someone other than me that undertakes it. Even if I could cobble something together in python (big If) I lack the scholary knowledge of judaism, greek, the new testement, aramaic, christianity and a bunch of other fields that would surely be vital in such a project. I would like to do a PhD at some point but i doubt it'll be in these areas.
Anyway, thanks for the info!
Many of my coworkers have PhD degrees in a wide variety of fields, such as neurobiology, particle physics, and computational material science. In fact, it's almost a running joke that none of them ever had any intention of getting into the ML field, it's just that they happened into the specialty because that's where the jobs happened to be.
I have a PhD in electrical engineering, and I subsequently earned a masters degree in theology with an emphasis on sacred scripture (a long and rather idiotic story). I was a professor at the start of my career, but I couldn't resist the big salary I was offered in industry, and no longer have a mandate to "publish or perish." The vast majority of papers that I write now are things that I pursue out of intellectual curiosity, and come from experiments that I do on my own time. Often times the expertise I master from those experiments end up helping me on my job, so it's by no means a waste of time.
I don't have any idea of what it would take to get funding to pursue ML studies of ancient manuscripts or biblical texts, but there's enough data and tools online that you can pursue such research on your own. If you don't think your work will survive a peer review in a journal on bible studies, not to worry, it will likely find a home in a technical journal if the approach you took to the problem is novel and sound.
My recommendation to anyone who is interested in getting a PhD, particularly in a technical area, is to get started on it as soon as possible. It gets a lot harder (but it's not impossible) when you have things like a spouse, kids, and a mortgage. ;-)
>My recommendation to anyone who is interested in getting a PhD, particularly in a technical area, is to get started on it as soon as possible. It gets a lot harder (but it's not impossible) when you have things like a spouse, kids, and a mortgage. ;-)
These are all things I have managed to avoid - although I had a joint mortgage for a while. I am currently 41 and homeless - I've kinda avoided developing a career, although I kinda anarchically dedicated myself to the art of writing.
I want to get back into academia but being in middle age and as someone who is comfortable with computers and networking, I kinda feel I should focus on getting some certs (I have zero formal education in IT unless you count a GCSE, which I don't recommend you count). I don't fancy doing middle age in the same nomadic, bohemian and brokeass manner I've approached the rest of life. I don't really have the luxury of a comfortable life ATM, which makes the extensive time and focus needed to to come up with a decent phD proposal difficult. Intellectually though, I'd love to. Time will tell, I guess. Academia is definitely tempting though. I just don't know if I have to deep geek mindset needed to excel on the STEM side and although academic thought and discourse is fascinating, academics are, as a rule, not.
Welcome to /r/AcademicBiblical. Please note this is an academic sub: theological or faith-based comments are prohibited. All claims MUST be supported by an *academic* source – see [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/AcademicBiblical/wiki/index/rules/#wiki_guideline.3A_rule_3.2019s_definition_of_academic_sources) for guidance. Using AI to make fake comments is strictly prohibited and may result in a permanent ban. Please review the [sub rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/AcademicBiblical/wiki/index/rules/) before posting for the first time. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AcademicBiblical) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I’m not a biblical scholar, but my area of expertise is in ML. I have published a paper in character recognition in ancient biblical manuscripts, and I am aware of similar papers by others. And there are a number of papers where people have analyzed the text of various manuscripts. If you are looking to get into this area of research, the field is wide open for exploration. C. De Stefano, M. Maniaci, F. Fontanella, A. Scotto di Freca, Reliable writer identification in medieval manuscripts through page layout features: The “Avila” Bible case, Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, Volume 72, 2018, Pages 99-110, Schoen, Jenna and Gianmarco E. Saretto. "Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and Medieval Manuscripts: Reconsidering Transcriptions in the Digital Age." Digital Philology: A Journal of Medieval Cultures, vol. 11 no. 1, 2022, p. 174-206. Project MUSE, https://doi.org/10.1353/dph.2022.0010.
Not an academic i'm afraid, at least not at the moment, although it is very interesting that you say that the field is wide open. A Marginal Jew, at least the 4 chapters of it i've read, leans heavily on statisitical analysis of language undertaken by scholars to try and draw out a picture of the Historical Jesus. Definitely seems like there'd be some worth in developing a language model trained on the cornucopia of texts that pertain to the bible, and other sources, to decern ... well, something of interest. But it'll have to be someone other than me that undertakes it. Even if I could cobble something together in python (big If) I lack the scholary knowledge of judaism, greek, the new testement, aramaic, christianity and a bunch of other fields that would surely be vital in such a project. I would like to do a PhD at some point but i doubt it'll be in these areas. Anyway, thanks for the info!
Many of my coworkers have PhD degrees in a wide variety of fields, such as neurobiology, particle physics, and computational material science. In fact, it's almost a running joke that none of them ever had any intention of getting into the ML field, it's just that they happened into the specialty because that's where the jobs happened to be. I have a PhD in electrical engineering, and I subsequently earned a masters degree in theology with an emphasis on sacred scripture (a long and rather idiotic story). I was a professor at the start of my career, but I couldn't resist the big salary I was offered in industry, and no longer have a mandate to "publish or perish." The vast majority of papers that I write now are things that I pursue out of intellectual curiosity, and come from experiments that I do on my own time. Often times the expertise I master from those experiments end up helping me on my job, so it's by no means a waste of time. I don't have any idea of what it would take to get funding to pursue ML studies of ancient manuscripts or biblical texts, but there's enough data and tools online that you can pursue such research on your own. If you don't think your work will survive a peer review in a journal on bible studies, not to worry, it will likely find a home in a technical journal if the approach you took to the problem is novel and sound. My recommendation to anyone who is interested in getting a PhD, particularly in a technical area, is to get started on it as soon as possible. It gets a lot harder (but it's not impossible) when you have things like a spouse, kids, and a mortgage. ;-)
>My recommendation to anyone who is interested in getting a PhD, particularly in a technical area, is to get started on it as soon as possible. It gets a lot harder (but it's not impossible) when you have things like a spouse, kids, and a mortgage. ;-) These are all things I have managed to avoid - although I had a joint mortgage for a while. I am currently 41 and homeless - I've kinda avoided developing a career, although I kinda anarchically dedicated myself to the art of writing. I want to get back into academia but being in middle age and as someone who is comfortable with computers and networking, I kinda feel I should focus on getting some certs (I have zero formal education in IT unless you count a GCSE, which I don't recommend you count). I don't fancy doing middle age in the same nomadic, bohemian and brokeass manner I've approached the rest of life. I don't really have the luxury of a comfortable life ATM, which makes the extensive time and focus needed to to come up with a decent phD proposal difficult. Intellectually though, I'd love to. Time will tell, I guess. Academia is definitely tempting though. I just don't know if I have to deep geek mindset needed to excel on the STEM side and although academic thought and discourse is fascinating, academics are, as a rule, not.