Background Certain exemplars of the Dao-De Jing are composed of exactly 4,999 characters, and an historical source affirms that there existed a version of the Dao-De Jing composed of exactly 5,000 characters. Results Here, we show with a p-value of 5 × 10 −21 ⇒ Z > 9 σ , that the different textual witnesses presently available attesting unto Genesis 1–3 are all descended from an hyperarchetype of exactly 4,000 letters, reconstructible from the Masoretic Text alone, and about 1/20 th shorter than this one, while those attesting unto Jeremiah 50–51 are all descended from an hyperarchetype of exactly 4,000 plus 300 letters, also reconstructible from the Masoretic Text alone, but about 1/3 rd shorter than this one. Discussion Our results disprove the Model b in favour of the Model a , and demonstrate that the long form of the Book of Jeremiah is not an extended edition of the short form, but that the short form is an abridged edition of the long form.
Adrien Locatelli (Sun,) studied this question.