What we adress
The Synoptic Hub is a project integrating the Digital Humanities and the study of the synoptic problem. It proceeds from the simple observation that accessing existing collected data (e.g., Hawkins’ Horae Synopticae) and visual tools (e.g., synopses) created to assist in studying the synoptic problem requires the consultation of many different sources – including individual studies (e.g., the statistical information offered throughout in Goulder’s commentary on Luke) – that have primarily been limited to the book format, which offers only limited possibilities for interacting with the large amounts of relevant data. It is thus easy lose sight of the larger picture of collected data and fail to take into account relevant observations in making a specific argument.
What we already offer
As a first step toward addressing this problem, the project offers a central hub where scholars can make data informing their individual synoptic research projects openly accessible in digital format to other researchers and the interested public. The digital format opens up the capability of making research data sets interactive and more visually manipulable. The abilities to digitally interact with and reformat data will support the development of new questions and new ways of looking at the redactional features of the synoptic gospels.
Like most synoptic tools, this project too derives from a particular context: in this case from research being conducted at the University of Bonn on the Old Testament and the synoptic problem. The hub is thus first making available data-sets depicting the occurrences of explicit OT quotations and the far more frequent OT allusions in the synoptic gospels in a tabular, color-coded format that the user can search, reorganize according to gospel, and reverse (NT to OT; OT to NT).
What we want to achieve
The long-term goal of the project is to develop an online synopsis tool that enables a more malleable comparison of the synoptic gospels than printed editions and Bible software tools currently offer. The raw data previously collected would then be incorporated into the online synopsis, much like the lexical data available at the hover of a cursor in current Bible software programs.
Who’s behind it
The project is led by Dr. Phillip Andrew Davis, Jr. and administered by Johannes Fröh. It is supported by the Argelander Program of the University of Bonn.
The hub is looking for scholars interested in making their own raw research data openly available. If you would like to contribute in this way, please write to [email protected]