Computing Paul
Benjamin L. White · 2025
Abstract This chapter describes how the development of inferential statistics and complex computing algorithms contributed to the scientificity of stylometric inquiries into the authorship of the Pauline Epistles. It shows how, over time, the measurement of univariate features gave way to complex multivariate features that were being measured in multidimensional space. In the computer era, fewer and fewer biblical scholars were engaged with the developments in computational stylistics. Rather, the older, simpler, and outdated studies of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were often referenced by biblical scholars, while novel work was pursued by mathematicians and computer scientists proficient enough to harness the new tools. The chapter describes how even with shinier, flashier tools many of the ideological and historiographical problems that beset the studies described in the previous chapter have continued into the computer era, where there is no consistent finding on the Pauline authorship question.