Peter Kirby, over at the Christian Origins blog, has done some work with word frequencies in the Pauline Epistles. There are two posts to review:

• Lexical Look at the Pauline Epistles
• New Algorithm for Lexical Style

I haven't had time to fully digest Peter Kirby's posts yet, I hope to start on that over the next few days. He may just re-open the word-frequency can of worms for me. If I have further comments after looking through what he's done, I'll surely post them here.

As longer-term ricoblog readers know, I've flirted with this area as well. I think P.N. Harrison (Problem of the Pastoral Epistles, Oxford, 1921) did the most work with the problem of unique vocabulary in the Paulines, and I think Harrison's work can be used as fodder for both sides of the argument. Donald Guthrie, in his short monograph The Pastoral Epistles and the Mind of Paul (Tyndale House Publishers (UK): 1954(?)) uses Harrison's own numbers in an effective argument against Harrison's position. That said, there are interesting things possible with word frequencies, but the agreed-upon Pauline corpus is just too small a sample to make any conclusions about particular epistles. At least, that's my conclusion.

One thing I find even more interesting than word frequencies is the frequency or recurrence of three-word phrases in a given corpus. I've used James Tauber's data (thanks again, James ... though you really need to XML-itize it!). A colleague here at Logos coined the term "tri-log" for three-word-phrase (where the lexical form of the word is considered, not the inflected form), so I've used that term, at least for now. My initial forays in this area can be seen here:

• A Concordance of Tri-Logs in the Pastoral Epistles
• A Concordance of Tri-Logs Held in Common between the "Genuine" Paulines and Pastorals

I've only generated the data, I haven't analyzed it. My basic hypothesis is that these "tri-logs" (three-word-phrases) may be a better indicator of style or authorship than frequencies of individual words across documents in a given corpus.

Stephen C. Carlson, of Hypotyposeis fame, has done similar stuff (with analysis!) that he's posted to the web. Also recommended to me from at least two different sources (though I haven't obtained a copy or read the work) is A Stylometric Study of the New Testament by Kenny (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986). The whole area is interesting to me, but I think I should read Kenny's book and perhaps a few others on style and stylometry before going too much further down this road.

[updated; a few sentences added and a paragraph moved]

I'd heard rumors that one could use an RSS reader to check a Gmail inbox, but didn't know how to do it.

I stumbled across the secret sauce last night: How do I view Gmail messages with my aggregator? 

My morning blog reading brought me to Rubén Gómez' Bible Software Review and an announcement of a Mac version of the LDLS. I normally don't blog directly about Logos or the LDLS, but this seems like it can be an exception.

As Rubén says, this is not an April Fool's joke. I can confirm the rumors. Here are a few sources you can go to for more information:

• The Logos Bible Software for the Macintosh Q&A Page. Note that at the bottom of this page there is an email signup form. You can sign up to be updated of progress and announcements regarding Logos for the Mac.
• The Official Logos Press Release
• The Logos for the Mac Newsgroup at news://news.logos.com/macintosh
• Mark Kellner, computer columnist for the Washington Times, announces the Mac version in his weekly column.

There's a lot of work to do. Keep watching the Logos Macintosh newsgroups and make sure you subscribe to the email list to stay apprised of the latest developments for the Mac platform.

Jesus Christ has risen the dead! He is risen indeed!

The first thing I did after getting out of bed this morning was listen to Don Francisco's He's Alive [Rhapsody Link]. If you have Rhapsody or have access to a recording of this song, do yourself a favor and in the quiet of the morning or the evening, stop everything and listen to the song.

Then, after some reading (Caspar Olevianus on the meaning and benefits of the resurrection) I wrote a quick poem. My poetry isn't the best, but I wanted to share this here anyway:

What we call "sins" are only evidence of our depravity.
Our nature, corrupt to the core, can only produce sin.

Deeds done with good intent are tainted.
Thoughts pondered in secret are void of light.

We are wholly fallen.
We need mercy.
We need grace.
We need Jesus.

Perfect God, perfect man,
Human, yet divine
Steps into time to redeem us.

Sin must be punished, else God would not be just.
Jesus, in perfection, takes our sin upon His own head.

Not simply our wrong-doings, but the source:
Our total wrong-being.*
Our nature, bent** from perfection to sin.

And He redeems us.

 Praise God for His mercy and salvation. He is risen. Enjoy your day as you celebrate Christ's triumph over sin and death.

* "wrong doing" vs. "wrong being" comes from Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, the reading for October 7: "Sin is a fundamental relationship; it is not wrong doing, it is wrong being, deliberate and emphatic independence of God."

** the idea of a "bent" nature comes from C.S. Lewis' Out of the Silent Planet, the section where Dr. Ransom is attempting to explain the problem of sin to a society that has no knowledge of sin.

If you're coming to ricoblog as a result of reading the article in the spring 2005 issue of The Classic, check out this post for more info.

Update: Responding to my Mom, yeah -- a few folks have emailed. I know the copies are still being mailed (just rec'd my own regular copy on Friday), so if you're reading this, and you know me from those NWC years, drop me a line at textgeek (a-t.) gmail (do t.) com.

The Rhapsody Radish had a link to an artist I'd never heard of before — Justin Rosolino.

I've been listening to his album Wonderlust since I read about it. The description at the Radish is pretty much spot-on. Also, check out lyrics like these (complete album lyrics available online), from a song titled "Oprah" (audio sample available here):

VERSE I
Me and Oprah Winfrey met for coffee with St. Augustine in Amsterdam last Thursday afternoon
She made conversation with such perfect calculation while quietly I scribbled down this tune

PreChorus:
She tried her best to have the best intentions,
In as much as intentions can be
she asked us, “why do bad things have to happen
to good people like Stedman and me?”

CHORUS:
It’s the same conversation we’ve had so long
But I’m still waiting, and I’m still waiting
the radio stations play the same old song
But I’m still waiting I’m still waiting

Verse II
we began to psychoanalyze our opinions as they came to mind,
and she said she’d like to hear our point of view
She said “I just do what my heart tells me to, cause if it feels right, then it must be true. But wicked things are what wicked people do.”

PreChorus II
Now Augustine grew visibly uncomfortable
So she asked him if he disagreed
He said that no one ever thinks that they’re the wicked ones,
so just how honest do you think we can be?

CHORUS

BRIDGE:
I can tell myself it’s alright, it’s OK
And imagine some self-centered secrets away,
“It’s a cruel, cruel world”, I hear everyone say
But ain’t you and I who made it that way?

CHORUS

(Words and music by Justin Rosolino)

And if that isn't enough, the last track (an instrumental simply titled "29") is incredible. Check this guy out, even if it is just listening to the samples on the artist's web page.

I'll get back to bibliobloggin' at some point soon, but when I run across stuff like this I just have to mention it.

Update: Searching around for more info brought me to Paste Music's site, where two full tracks are available for download. I'd recommend "Legacy" above "Again", personally.

Cheers and best wishes to Dr. Jim Davila and his blog, PaleoJudaica, as today is PaleoJudaica's second birthday.

I don't have a lot of biblioblogs in my blog aggregator (I use SharpReader, if you must know), but PaleoJudaica has been in there for over a year. That Dr. Davila occasionally checks out my little prairie outpost of biblioblogdom is all the more encouragement to be vigilant in blogging.

Thanks again, Dr. Davila!

[all track links require RealRhapsody]

The Blind Boys of Alabama have released a new album, and it is available on Rhapsody. Here's a link to the Rhapsody Radish, a Rhapsody link blog, with a link to the album page on Rhapsody.

The album's title song, (Jesus Hits Like The) Atom Bomb, is a remake of the version originally sung by a group called The Pilgrim Travelers. The Soul Stirrers. A group called The Pilgrim Travelers has also done a version of the song. I only know about the song because awhile back Bob mentioned it to me (I don't recall where he heard it from), and another colleague at Logos dutifully looked it up in Rhapsody so we could all hear it. The song was originally written in the early 1950's 1949 — quite timely (perhaps a bit too timely) for a song about an atom bomb. Here's the chorus:

Everybody's worried
About that atom bomb
No one seems worried
About the day my Lord shall come

(You'd better) set your house in order
He may be comin' soon
And then he'll hit like an atom bomb
When he comes, when he comes.

More info on the album and the song is available at Christianity Today.

If you dig gospel, the The Blind Boys of Alabama are highly recommended.