Digital Humanities and the Bible

Abstract

Digital humanities and the Bible is an arm of biblical studies that uses computing and linked data technologies to create tools, portals, electronic indices, digital textual editions, and digital publications for biblical research and pedagogy. The intersection of biblical studies and computing technology has transformed how scholars teach and study the Bible, its world and characters, and its interpretative history. Digital Bible scholars and theologians engage digital tools and applications in their research, teaching, and publishing. They also analyze how digital methods, databases, and visualization affect the dissemination of knowledge of the Bible. This article presents projects that elucidate how scholars can use digital tools to probe the questions of biblical studies and train scholars in the skills for studying the Bible. It includes introductory material for students and scholars new to the digital humanities. The digital scholarship addressed here is meant to help scholars recognize the size of different biblical textual corpora in the various languages of the ancient world. Collaborators in the digital humanities work across disciplinary boundaries. Biblical studies, too, which brings together theologians, philologists, historians, archaeologists, paleographers, and anthropologists, therefore, works well with the interdisciplinary nature of the digital humanities. Digital bible scholars work with librarian collections, archives, memory institutions, and the preservation of cultural heritage as this pertains to their field and the knowledge economy of the Bible: its textual history, its people and places, and its transmission.