Participles and Computer searches

Peter Head PeterH at oakhill.ac.uk
Thu Mar 25 12:04:11 EST 1999



Theodore "Ted" Mann asked: 
"Can anyone tell me which NT document contains the greatest number of
participles?"

We were privileged to receive two answers. One (from Alan Hultberg) had
searched Accordance. The other (from Eric Cohoon) had searched
BibleWorks 3.5. 

The two lists could only agree on five out of twenty-seven NT
documents!! The differences are up to 20%. Either this proves we should
pay no attention to such statistics, or that we need to think rather
carefully about who constructed the databases and what we are asking the
engines to search for.

I have adapted the first list posted (Acc.) to reveal these differences.
How shall we explain them?

                Acc.	BW3.5

        Matthew  936	(915)

           Mark  562	(558)

           Luke 1069	(1047)

           John  486	(488)

           Acts 1283	(1270)

         Romans  255	(239)

   1Corinthians  182	(178)

   2Corinthians  196	(197)

      Galatians   83	(82)

      Ephesians  107	(85)

    Philippians   56	(51)

     Colossians   77	(63)

 1Thessalonians   58	58***

 2Thessalonians   26	(25)

       1Timothy   81	(78)

       2Timothy   55	(52)

          Titus   32	(31)

       Philemon    7	7***

        Hebrews  315	(314)

          James   70	(67)

         1Peter  119	(98)

         2Peter   88	(89)

          1John   58	58***

          2John   12	12***

          3John   11	11***

           Jude   39	(34)

     Revelation  395	(403)




............................................
Peter M. Head
Oak Hill College
LONDON N14 4PS
peterh at oakhill.ac.uk
............................................



More information about the B-Greek mailing list