Digital Approaches to Sacred Texts - Research Team

Research Team - Digital Approaches to Sacred Texts

• Mission

  The research group deepens its research by applying cutting-edge innovation to the study of the Hebrew Bible (co-reference resolution, Neural Networks, Machine Learning), and it broadens its scope to include other languages (Sanskrit, Arabic, Syriac, Greek) and religious text corpora.

• Team

  Willem van Peursen (team leader)

  Yusuf Çelik

  Pieter Coppens

  Marius Dorobantu

  Joep Dubbink

  Margaretha Folmer

  Jorik Groen

  Matthijs de Jong

  Srecko Koralija

  Bee Scherer

  Eveline van Staalduine

  Constantijn Sikkel
  

• Projects

  Connecting Climate Discourse and Religious Language (from 2024)

  Funding provided by the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Profile Theme Connected World.
  Willem van Peursen Yusuf Çelik, Jan Jorrit Hasselaar (FRT), Sandjai Bhulai (BETA), Meike Morren (SBE)

  This project combines Natural Language Processing, text-mining, religious studies and social sciences to address question such as: how is climate conversation shaped by religious concepts and what does this reveal about the interrelatedness of world view and attitudes towards nature and climate? The project involved the mining of websites of important environmental NGOs such as Greenpeace.

  Seeing The Words: Evaluating AI-generated Biblical Art (from 2023)

  Hidde Makimei, Shuai Wang, Willem Th. Van Peursen

  This project involves the generation of a large dataset of over 7K images using biblical text as prompts and the evaluation of these images with multiple neural network-based tools on various aspects. The prompts are the biblical passages on the expulsion from Paradise, the Tower of Babel, the binding of Isaac, Moses Found and the Last Supper.  The generated images are further compared with Renaissance and Baroque paintings based on the same episodes. In this way it explores the complex interaction between text, imagination, conventional representations and AI the performance of the AI generators.

  Ge’ez project morphological encoding (from 2024)

  Garry Jost, Jorik Groen, Constantijn Sikkel, Yusuf Çelik, Martijn Naaijer, Willem van Peursen

  This project explores the potential to apply the model of morphological analysis developed at the ETCBC to Classical Ethiopic (Ge’ez). This entails the definition of transliteration conventions and the set up of rules for the encoding of morphemes and the functional deductions based on the morphological analysis. The aim is that in a later stage this can be used to accelerate the morphological analysis of Ge’ez biblical texts that are now presented at https://ethiopic-tool.firebaseapp.com.

  Morphological Analysis of the Syrohexaplaric Psalter (from 2023)

  Funding provided by the Göttingen Septuagint Project
  Logan Copley, Piotr Jutkiewicz, Willem van Peursen, Constantijn Sikkel, Yusuf Çelik

  Building upon the models developed in the project “Morphological Parser for Inflectional Languages Using Deep Learning”, this project aims at the morphological encoding of the Syrohexaplaric version of the Psalms. It is a project component of the Editio critica maior of the Greek Psalter.

  Qoroyo (from 2023)

  Yusuf Çelik

  Qoroyo is a linguistic and hermeneutical tool that facilitates multilingual presentation and annotation of textual data and the application of computational analytical methods.

  Live-mapping Religious Difference Online (2023)

  Funding provided by the Network Institute
  Yusuf Çelik and Willem van Peursen

  This project investigates the feasibility of live-mapping the differential use of religious texts in social media to identify religious issues present across digitally mediated culture. It involves two hackatons, “Text-mining social media in the age of restrictions” and “Analyzing religious language in social media” and a concluding seminar by  Dr Peter M. Phillips (Centre for Digital Theology, Spurgeons College, London)

  Educating Moral Leadership Grounded in Theology (from 2022)

  Joint project with the School of Business and Economics (Vrije Universiteit)
  Srećko Koralija, Elco van Burg (SBE), Omar Solinger (SBE), Willem van Peursen

  This project combines biblical studies and theology with research inquiries in organizational studies, business, and organizational behavior. It includes questions such as: How can an exploration of religious texts enhance comprehension of moral motivation and leadership? What constitutes moral leadership, and how can a religious text, such as the Bible, aid in its definition?

  Greek New Testament conversion project (from 2022)

  Joint project with the Center of Biblical Languages and Computing (CBLC), Andrews University
  Tony Jurg, Saulo de Oliveira Cantanhede (Andrews), Oliver Glanz (Andrews), Willem van Peursen

  This project entails the conversion of Lowfat trees from the MACULA linguistic datasets for the Nestle 1904 Greek New Testament towards Text-Fabric, to facilitate computational corpus analysis.

  Who Determines What the Qur’an Means: Hermeneutical Authority in Premodern and Modern Islam (2022–2023)

  NIAS full year fellowship 2022/23
  Pieter Coppens

  In this fellowship Pieter Coppens investigated how digital tools developed by the KITAB project (Aga Khan University London) can be used to detect text reuse in the massive corpus of the tafsir tradition. He wrote a chapter for and edited volume on text reuse from the corpus of the 12th-century mystic Ibn 'Arabi in the 19th-century Qur'an commentary of Shihab al-Din al-Alusi.

  Morphological Parser for Inflectional Languages Using Deep Learning (from 2021)

  Funding provided by the eScience Center
  Martijn Naaijer, Willem van Peursen, Constantijn Sikkel, Mathias Coeckelbergs, Yusuf Çelik, Jisk Attema (eScience Center), Dafne van Kuppevelt (eScience Center)

  This project started as an eScience Center Open Small Scale Initiative (SSI) project. After the completion of the funded project (2021–2022), it continued as a research group developing tools for the morphological analysis of Hebrew, Syriac and other inflectional languages. One of its spin-offs is the Qoroyo platform.

  See also this RANLP-ALP 2023 presentation and blogpost 1 and blogpost 2.

  PaTraCoSy: Patterns in Translation: Using Colibri Core for the Syriac Bible (from 2021)

  Funding provided by CLARIAH Fellowship programme
  Mathias Coeckelbergs and Willem van Peursen

  In this fellowship Mathias Coeckelbergs investigaed to what extent can linguistically uninformed features help us in tracing divergent patterns in an ancient Syriac Bible translation and its Hebrew source text, Colibri Core developed by Maarten van Gompel.

  Deliverables include an LREC presentation and blogpost 1, blogpost 2 and blogpost 3.

  Dhammapada latine (2021)

  Bee Scherer, Yvon Mattaar, Willem van Peursen

  This project concerns the creation of a Text-Fabric module with a digital version of the Dhammpada in Pali and its 19-cent. Latin translation by M. Viggo Fausbøll.

  See further the GitHub page and the blogpost on the ETCBC website

  Understanding Spiritual Intelligence (2020-2024)

  Funding provided by the Templeton Foundation
  DAST member involved: Marius Dorobantu

  THis is an interdisciplinary project run by the International Society for Science & Religion, focused on understanding the nature of spiritual intelligence from psychological, computational, and theological perspectives. The project brought together renowned AI pioneers (Yorick Wilks and William Clocksin), cognitive scientists (Philip Barnard), psychologists (Fraser Watts) and theologians (Rowan Williams), and was funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation, as part of their Diverse Intelligences initiative.

  See the project website.

  New Frysian Bible translation (Fryske Bibel Oersetting) (from 2017)

  ETCBC members involved: Eep Talstra and Lénart de Regt

  The Frysian translation of the Bible is being prepared by Stifting YKFE-FBO. Draft translations are being prepared by computer programs made by Eep Talstra based on the database.

  For more information see the project website.

  Database Driven E-Learning (DaDEL) (from 2018)

  Joint project with the Protestant Theological University
  Funding provided by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW)
  Support provided by the United Bible Societies
  ETCBC members involved: Willem van Peursen and Nicolai Winther-Nielsen

  This project involved the development of digital educational tools for the study of Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, potentially be extended to other ancient languages.  After the completion of the funded project (2018–2020, DaDEL was integrated in the Bible Online Learner Consortium under the umbrella of the United Bible Societies (from 2022).

  CACCHT: Creating Annotated Corpora of Classical Hebrew Text (from 2018)

  Funding provided by the Charis Foundation.
  Martijn Naaijer, Martin Ehrensvärd, Christian Canu Højgaard, Robert Rezetko

  "Creating Annotated Corpora of Classical Hebrew Texts (CACCHT) focuses on annotating and publishing textual datasets of the Hebrew Bible. Presently, we are working on a dataset of a new edition of the Samaritan Pentateuch, which can be found on GitHub (https://github.com/dt-ucph/sp)."  See also the project page on GitHub and the Blogpost on the Dead Sea Scrolls Text-Fabric Module

  Peshitta Portal Project (from 2017)

  Funding provided by Brill Publisher and the Peshitta foundation.
  Hannes Vlaardingerbroek, Constantijn Sikkel and Willem van Peursen

  This project involves the creation of an electronic version of the Leiden Peshitta edition Vetus Testamentum Syriace which is available in the Brill Peshitta Online. It includes the complete critical apparatus and introductions found in the printed edition. OCR techniques were developed for the digitization of the printed edition.

  For more information see this blogpost.

  Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Database (long-term, ongoing)

  Joint project with the Protestant Theological University
  Klaas Spronk (PThU), Paul Sanders (PThU), DAST member involved: Willem van Peursen

  The SAHD project aims to provide a structured and critical survey of scholarly literature on the vocabulary of classical Hebrew. The ETCBC involvement concerns the integration of textual and   lexicographical data. It’s current directors are Klaas Spronk and Paul Sanders

  Website: http://www.otw-site.eu/en/sahd/

  Revision of the List of Peshitta manuscripts (long-term, ongoing)

  Geert Jan Veldman and Willem van Peursen

  This project concerns a complete revision and update of the preliminary version of the List of Peshitta manuscripts published in 1961. Project constituents include the project “Linking Syriac Liturgies and Updating and expanding the description of Peshiṭta Old Testament lectionary manuscripts made by Willem Baars”.

  See further the contribution on Academia on  the new format of the List, the DANS repository of the Linking Syriac Liturgies project and this [open access] and this blogpost by Geert Jan Veldman about his visit to the HMML.

• Possible thesis topics

  • Text to Image generation based on biblical texts (Van Peursen)
  • Generative AI and biblical studies (Van Peursen)
  • Text-syntax and discourse analysis. E.g.: the syntactic text-hierarchical structure of Genesis in relation to the toledoth structure. (Van Peursen)
  • Participant identification and participant reference, e.g.: what is the function of “oracles against the nations” (Van Peursen)
  • Hebrew and Syriac linguistics (morphology, syntax) (Van Peursen)
  • Bible translation: Notorious issues in Bible translations explored from an exegetical point of view (e.g. Gen. 1:1-3 (the first sentence of the Bible), Gen 12:2-3 (the blessing of Abram), ‘leprosy’ in the Bible, the translation of ‘sarx’ in the Pauline letters (De Jong)
  • Cultural interpretation and Bible translation: discerning and respecting the “otherness” of the text; evaluation of current bible translations (De Jong)
  • Social network analysis of Arabic/Islamic biographical dictionaries (ṭabaqāt) (Coppens)
  • The digital Tafsir corpus and Text Reuse Method (Coppens)
  • Theological questions concerning community, religion and identity in the post-exilic period, especially in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah (Dubbink)
  • The book of Jeremiah (Dubbink)
  • Old Aramaic or Persian period Aramaic (Folmer)
  • The books of Daniel and Ezra (Folmer)
  • Qumran studies (Qumran Aramaic in particular) (Folmer)
  • Ancient translations of the Old Testament (Staalduine)
  • Christian and Jewish exegesis (Staalduine)
  • Psalms in pastoral care (Staalduine)
  • Buddhist Philologies, e.g.: The text and reception history of the Pāli Kālāma Sutta AN 3.65   (Scherer)
  • Pre-Islamic Religious Contact in South and Central Asia: e.g.: The notion of wisdom in Khotanese Buddhist Texts (Scherer)
  • Scripture(s) and Canon(s) of Modernist Buddhisms, e.g.: The use of scriptural exegesis in the writings of Pema Chödron (Sherer)
  • The theological implications of the successes and failures of generative AI (Dorobantu)
  • Theological anthropology and the (im-/)possibility of Artificial General Intelligence (Dorobantu)
  • Theological perspectives on the ethics of AI (Dorobantu)
  • Spirituality, intelligence, and the differences between human and artificial cognition (Dorobantu) 
  • Transhumanism, theological anthropology and/or eschatology (Dorobantu)

• Possible PhD Topics

  [First supervisor: Prof. Willem van Peursen]

  • Text-syntax and discourse analysis, to address questions such as:
    • How does the syntactic text-hierarchical structure of Genesis relate to the toledoth structure and thematic divisions of the text?
  • Participant identification and participant reference
    • With a more computational focus (anaphora resolution, co-occurrence analysis), e.g. participants in the Books of Jeremiah or Ezekiel
    • With a more exegetical focus, e.g. what is the function of “oracles against the nations”?
  • Hebrew and Syriac linguistics (morphology, syntax)
  • Text-clustering. Application of computational methods to address questions such as:
    • can we discern a Deuteronomistic redaction in the book of Jeremiah?
    • How should we evaluate the traditions classification of psalms in hymns, laments, royal psalms etc.?
    • What type of oral formulaic language (cf. Robert Culley) do we find in the biblical psalms?
  • Application of Machine Learning for linguistic encoding or analysis of Hebrew and Syriac texts.
  • Application of topic modelling to discern relations among biblical texts.
  • Application of Social Network Analysis in Biblical narratives.
  • Syriac Apocalypses of the 7^th century.

  [First supervisor: Prof. Matthijs de Jong]

  • Text-syntax and discourse analysis meets Bible translation  
  • Recent views on Paul (e.g. new perspective) as reflected in current Bible translations  
  • Inclusivity in Bible Translation

  [First supervisor: Prof. Eveline van Staalduine-Sulman]

  • The ancient versions of the Bible, especially the Targums
  • Jewish exegesis and hermeneutics
  • The book of Samuel
  • Evangelical reception of the Bible

  [First supervisor: Dr. Margaretha Folmer]

  • Old Aramaic
  • Elephantine studies
  • Persian period Aramaic
  • The books of Daniel and Ezra (Biblical Aramaic)
  • Targumic studies (Jewish Aramaic)
  • Qumran studies (Qumran Aramaic in particular)
  • Aramaic Magic  Bowls from Late Antiquity
  • Ancient Jewish Magic

  [First supervisor: Prof. Joep Dubbink]

  • Theological questions concerning community, religion and identity in the post-exilic period, especially in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah
  • The book of Zechariah

  [First supervisor: Prof. Dr. Bee Scherer]

  • Buddhist Philologies (Indic: Sanskrit, Middle Indic incl. Pāli, Gāndhārī, Apabhraṃśa : Non-Indic: Tibetan; Khotanese, Tokharian, Sogdian, Old Uyghur, Chinese, Japanese)
    • Translingual approaches to Buddhist authoritative texts; e.g. suttas and āgamas (Pāli-Chinese etc.)
      • E.g. The text and reception history of the Kālāma Sutta AN 3.65/ MĀ 16
      • E.g. Early Buddhist Apocrypha? Computational Approaches to mono-lingually transmitted discourses
    • Mapping translingual Buddhist doctrinal, poetical, and narratorial topoi and tropes
      • E.g. Imagery and tropes in the ‘Exalted Sayings’ genre
      • E.g. Translingual and -cultural imagery of nature (e.g. plant & animal tropes)
      • Metaphors of realisation: translingual shifts in enlightenment imagery
      • E.g. Mindfulness in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras
  • Pre-Islamic Religious Contact in South and Central Asia (Buddhism, Hellenism, Zoroastrianism, Nestorianism, Gnosis, Manichaeism)
    • Computational linguistical, iconographical and philological approaches
      • E.g. Constructing the Indo-Greek identity in Early Buddhist texts, inscriptions and art
      • E.g. Conceptualising Mani, Jesus and the Buddha at the Silk Road
      • E.g. Gendered imagery of liberation in religious contact on the Silk Road
      • E.g. The notion of wisdom in multireligious contact texts on the Silk Route
      • E.g. Mapping the multiple Lotus Sūtras on the Silk Route
  • Scripture(s) and Canon(s) of Modernist Buddhisms
    • Computational and philological approaches to scriptural-doctrinal normativisation in contemporary / transnational / modernist Buddhist movements
      • E.g. Scriptures and authority in the works of …
        • Thich Nhat Hanh
        • The 14^th Dalai Lama
        • Secular Buddhisms
      • E.g. Scriptural hermeneutics in Humanistic Buddhist traditions
      • E.g. Buddhist Hermeneutics of Social Justice (Metaethics; Sex & Gender; Sexualities; Dis/Abilities; Race & Ethnicity; Class; Socio-Economic status; Religious diversity)

  [First supervisor Dr. Pieter Coppens]

  • social network analysis of Arabic/Islamic biographical dictionaries (ṭabaqāt)
  • the digital Tafsir corpus and Text Reuse Method

  [First supervisor Dr. Marius Dorobantu]

  • The theological implications of the successes and failures of generative AI 
  • Theological anthropology and the (im-/)possibility of Artificial General Intelligence  
  • Theological perspectives on the ethics of AI 
  • Spirituality, intelligence, and the differences between human and artificial cognition 
  • Transhumanism, theological anthropology and/or eschatology 

• Connection with education

  In addition to the contribution the members of the research group to education in the Hebrew Bible and the sacred texts of other traditions as well as the languages of these texts, there are specialized courses in Digital Humanities, including the BA course “Bible Translation and Digital Humanities” which is part of the Minor Bible Translation in the Digital Age and the courses “Analytical Tools and the Study of the Bible” and “Digital Hermeneutics and the Reception of the Bible”, which are part of the MA specialization Biblical Studies and Digital Humanities (both as specialization as part of the MA programme “Exploring a Discipline” and as a Research MA track). The research group offers possibilities for internships and thesis supervision (BA, MA, PhD). The DH project “DaDEL: Data-driven E-learning” is used in the language courses for Biblical Hebrew and Greek offered by the Faculty as part of its BA programmes.

• Connection with centers/ institutes

  The Research Group is closely related to the Eep Talstra Centre for Bible and Computer (ETCBC; founded in 1977; formerly known as the Werkgroep Informatica Vrije Universiteit). The ETCBC develops and maintains an advanced syntactic database of the Hebrew Bible, in which linguistic information is encoded hierarchically at the word, phrase, clause, and text levels. The activities of the ETCBC include encoding new texts (data creation) and utilising already encoded texts for linguistic research.

• Research Agenda 2022-2023

  The research group Digital Approaches to Sacred Texts (DAST) is rooted in decades of experience of the computational analysis of the Hebrew Bible. At its start in 2021 this group formulated two aims:

  • Further development of digital textual analysis with state-of-the-art methods such as machine learning.

  This has been realized, among others, in the projects Morphological Parser for Inflectional Languages Using Deep Learning and PaTraCoSy: Patterns in Translation: Using Colibri Core for the Syriac Bible. We are also in the process of extending the linguistic analysis to verbal valence and participant tracking.

  • Expanding the field of research to other languages, texts and traditions.

  A first step has been taken in the Dhammapada latine project, which concerns the digitization of the Dhammpada in Pali and its 19-cent. Latin translation by M. Viggo Fausbøll.

  We are determined to take further steps in these areas and to start at least one follow-up project in both directions. Further, we want to broaden and strengthen the sound philological analysis of sacred texts combined with theological and hermeneutical depth. In 2022–2023 there are some promising conditions:

  1. Prof. Matthijs de Jong has recently joined our team. He holds the endowed chair Bible Translation of the Dutch Bible Society. This strengthens the research at the intersection of Biblical studies and Translation studies.
  2. Prof. Eveline van Staalduine and Dr. Margaretha Folmer are the conveners of the Congress of the International Organization of Targum Studies (Salzburg, 18–20 July 2022), which will give a strong impetus to the philological and literary study of this important source.
  3. Dr. Pieter Coppens has been awarded a research fellowship at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS) for his project “Who Determines what the Qur'an Means: Hermeneutical Authority in Premodern and Modern Islam.”

  Currently, about twenty PhD students are affiliated to the DAST research group. This leaves little room for new PhD students, but exceptions can be made for promising candidates with topics directly related to the expertise of the supervisor in the field of Computational Hebrew linguistics (Van Peursen), Buddhist texts (Scherer), Quran commentaries and digital text reuse analysis (Coppens), Bible Translation (De Jong) and Biblical Theology (Dubbink). For further details see the list given above under Possible PhD-topics.