Mapping Textual Space

Abstract The apparatus of a critical edition of the biblical text can be encoded as a tabular structure called a data matrix. By counting how often witnesses disagree in their readings, another tabular structure called a dissimilarity matrix is obtained which records the distance between each pair of witnesses. This article begins by applying statistical reasoning to determine what constitutes a statistically significant distance between two witnesses and how sample size affects the margin of error for a distance estimate. Following this, two modes of multivariate analysis called “multidimensional scaling” and “divisive clustering” are introduced then applied to data extracted from the apparatus of the Letter to the Hebrews in the fourth edition of the United Bible Societies’ Greek New Testament.