Not exactly a PIC chip project, just a natural and logical diversion after measuring Heartbeats.

Idea: if the Newton PDA is able to measure the human heart, why not use it to look at the human soul ?

At first sight, this might seem impossible, the human soul being rather intangible  ...

But if the human soul cannot be measured directly in the body  - then why not measure it indirectly,  where it is known to exist in visible form ?

So Heartbeats Part III uses the Newton and a handy software utility (Ch&Vs.pkg) to measure all the occurrences of the human soul in the Bible. The results are surprising, and a little unexpected.

The necessary first question  -  which Bible to use ?
The first answer  -  count the souls in several Bibles ...

Introduction

Prior to computers, searching the bible for a particular word might have been labour-intensive or time-consuming. Today, much of the work can be finished in a matter of seconds.
Internet Bible search facilities exist  -  a few have been explored for this project. To search an entire bible for all occurrences of the word 'soul' or 'souls' takes only a few moments, and a total count of the verses that contain the search-word is normally provided. Un-typical is the excellent biblija.net which provides a total count of both the verses containing the search-word, and a count of the search-word itself (these numbers may well be different if a verse contains several occurrences).

An alternate search method is found at onlineBible.org. Utility software and numerous bible texts are available for download and install on a PC. A CD with the same material is also available. Unlike the internet Bible sites, the onlineBible software can automatically create a useful list (a short text file) of the Chapter and Verse numbers, without the actual bible text.

To be meaningful for this project, the counting of 'souls' in electronic and paper bibles is compared to a Master List of Chapter and Verses created by searching the onlineBible.org Latin Vulgate of St.Jerome (originally compiled in the 4th century AD). The Master List is just the text file automatically generated by the online.org software.

Problem

Over the past few years Old-Sock (R&D) has accumulated a variety of bibles from second-hand bookshops.
The bibles in its collection are neither available online nor in a convenient electronic form.
To count all the occurrences of the word 'soul' in one of these bibles it is necessary to labouriously turn the paper pages, and look for the verse indicated by the Master List, and mark another sheet saying Yes or No, trying not to lose place in the list. This led to another problem.
It took a long time to complete even one bible. Much too long.

Solution

The Master List text file is transferred to the Newton, and a purpose-made utility called Ch&Vs processes it. Each verse is displayed in turn. Just tap Yes or No repeatedly, then tap Next for a new Chapter. Very easy. This cuts the time dramatically and provides a neat hard-copy of the results. No messy paper and ink.  The Newton keeps count and logs the relevant verses. Time not-spent sliding a ruler up and down the Master List is time better-spent concentrating on the bible text itself. And looking for the correct word amongst the Psalms and Sirach is particularly difficult because the verse numbering (and some Chapter numbering) varies between different bible versions.
 
 

Method

Creating a Master List

The Latin Vulgate requires search words to be in Latin.

Complication 1:
There are 6 different Latin words (i.e. declension endings) meaning 'soul' (feminine: breath of life):
  singular: anima, animam, animae  plural: animae, animas, animarum, animabus.
Animae may be singular or plural.
Animabus is irregular. The normal 1st-declension ending of a Dative or Ablative plural feminine noun would be animis.

Complication 2:
There is a similar-looking word, with a rather different and fuzzy meaning: 'life' (masculine: life, spirit, mind).
  singular: animus, animae, animum, animi, animo  plural:  animi, animos, animorum, animis
 Animi may be singular or plural.

Complication 3:
One of these word-endings (animae) is shared with both 'soul' and 'life/spirit/mind'.

Happily, there is a major difference in occurrence between anima (f) and animus (m) in the Latin Vulgate.
Searching on the nominative forms in the complete Vulgate (i.e. including the Apocryphal/Deutero-Canonical Books):
anima  (soul)  =  312 occurrences
animus (life/spirit/mind)  =  just 6 occurrences

The Master List of 'soul' and 'souls'  was created by searching for the 6 words anima, animae, animam, animas, animabus and animarum in the Latin Vulgate:   a total of 849 verses containing a soul.

Not counted are 18 further mentions in two non-Canonical books called 3 and 4 Esdras which are rarely seen in any bible apart from the Vulgate and e.g. the New RSV Cross-Reference Edition. (3 and 4 Esdras may also be called 1 and 2 Esdras in some Bibles.)

The Master List of verses from the Latin Vulgate was compared with 31 other Bible versions:
 - 10 Bibles from onlineBible.org, 11 Bibles from other internet Bible sites, 1 Bible on a CD, and 9 Bibles in paper form (the Newton utility Ch&Vs assists in counting verses in paper bibles).

Notes

1. Although animae is shared by two different nouns - anima (f) and animus (m) - it has been counted among the total for anima, 'soul'. It seems logical to associate animae (131 mentions) with the numerically more-common anima (312 mentions) which needs animae as both a singular (Genitive, Dative) and plural (Nominative, Vocative) declension-ending, rather than with the much scarcer animus (just 6 mentions) with its singular Vocative-ending animae.

2. The onlineBible search engine for the Latin Vulgate counts only Verses that contain the search word, not the word itself  i.e. multiple items within the same Verse are counted as one. This affects a handful of verses e.g. Ezekiel 13:18 & 18:4 and the count has not been corrected here. Later versions of the onlineBible software do provide a facility to count the word itself. To be consistent with most internet Bible search-engines, the count of 'souls' in this project is restricted to counting only the Verses that contain the search word.

3. An extra complication is the method of searching, whether to use one word at a time, or to string several words together. It can produce different results. The onlineBible software permits a quicker search if different words are combined. For example, the option to search on 'anima | animam | animae | animabus | animas | animarum' produces a smaller total count, and a smaller results list. This because multiple occurrences within a verse are filtered. If 'anima', 'animam', 'animas' etc were searched separately and their totals added, any verse containing more than one declension would be counted twice (or more), and would be duplicated in the search results. To create only unique verses the former method is used i.e. multiple search words are combined, wherever possible.

4. The onlineBible software (v 2.10.0.8) has a problem creating an automatic verse list for the Apocryphal Books, which are provided as a separate download file. The list had to be made from the search results by hand, keeping to the same format.

5. The English Jerusalem Bible was used for the correlation of aberrant verse numbering in some Bible books, because it shows alternate numbers together. If the 'soul' verse (in a particular paper-bible) was not found where indicated by the Master List then a check was made against the alternate verse numbers shown in the Jerusalem Bible. This method applies to only a few Chapters in 23 Books (see this list), but to many more Chapters in Psalms, Tobit, Sirach and Judith. Often the item is offset +/- one verse, sometimes offset by several verses, rarely it is in a different Chapter. A separate list of these alternate verses was maintained on paper, and then used in conjunction with the Newton utility which automatically flags when a Book-and-Chapter needs checking. Looking for the right verse amongst the Psalms is troublesome at first, but gets easier when the Bible numbering becomes clearer. It might have been easier to exclude the Psalms altogether.

6.  The French La Sainte Bible (Bible de Jerusalem) and a Spanish Sagrada Biblia are included in the analysis.
In French: soul is âme (singular) or âmes (plural). In Spanish: soul is alma (s) or almas (pl).

7. The New Jerusalem Bible is available online, but its search engine does not produce a useful count because multiple 'soul' occurrences within a Chapter are all counted as one item. A paper copy was used instead.

8. The RSV(rc) and NAB (rc) versions are also available on a searchable CD called Welcome to The Catholic Church. The total count of verses is not properly displayed, but the individual Books can be added together.
 

Results
 

The Disappearance of The Soul from the Bible

Notes

1. The results are shown in numerical order, not chronological order, and a date of publication is included.
The date a Bible was published is not necessarily the date of its creation. It might have taken 20 years to produce.

2. Eleven Bibles marked with ' - ' do not include any Apocryphal Books (called Deutero-Canonical Books by the RC Church), and the totals are reduced (but not by more than 86).

3. Nine bibles marked with ' * ' indicate that an online or electronic version was not available, and hence a paper copy was analysed using the Newton Ch&Vs software. The totals for the 9 paper bibles are therefore referenced to verses counted in the Master List which is obtained from Latin Vulgate text. This leads to a problem if the paper bible is derived from Hebrew or Greek material instead of Latin  -  their 'souls' might be in different verses, and some won't be counted. For example: an electronic version of the French Bible de Jerusalem (available here) shows a larger verse count of 344 (compared to 273 in the chart above), reflecting its greater use of Hebrew source texts (and better counting by using an online Bible).

4. In 1907 Pope Pius X instructed the Benedictine Community to complete the work of revision of the Latin bible started by St.Jerome e.g. Jerome hadn't touched Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch and I & II Maccabees; and some other Books were only partly complete. In 1979 the Nova Vulgata was finished and published by the Vatican, to be the official Latin Vulgate from that date. In the 1986 edition of the Nova Vulgata, Ch&Vs has counted 801 verses with souls, compared to the Master List with its 849. An important point to note is that it took the Benedictines three-quarters of a century to complete their mission. Some of the bibles in the Charts were created by one person in a few years.

5. Further details of the Bibles seen in the Charts.

6. Using the search-engine at biblija.net, the total 'soul/souls' word count in either of the two Vulgate Bibles reaches ~930 (excluding the non-Canonical Books in an Appendix).

7. Left to do: find other latin nouns or verbs in addition to animus that might share a declension with 'soul' (anima, animam, animas, animae, animabus, animarum). If any reader knows of such possibilities, please contact old-sock via the feedback form. Thank you.
 

Resources

1. OnlineBible.org for PC software and Bible texts, and a CD for purchase. The Psalms in the Vulgate uses a Hebrew source-text. Other Bible Psalms might use a Greek source, with a slightly different number of 'souls' (~7 extra).

2. A comprehensive list of internet Bibles, many with a search facility: sacredbible.org and biblegateway.com.

3. UK National Archives for an online Latin tutoral, and for the helpful tip about animabus.

4. A Grammar of the Vulgate - An Introduction to the Study of the Latinity of the Vulgate Bible, by W.E.Plater and H.J.White, Oxford University Press, 1926, reprinted 1997. ISBN 0-19-826976-5
It has a very interesting introduction explaining the importance of St.Jerome and his Latin Vulgate to both Protestant and RC bibles.

5. How to Choose A Bible Version - An Introductory Guide to English Translations, by Robert L.Thomas, Mentor, 2000, ISBN 1-85792-496-7
Contains useful background information about many Bible versions.

Newton Software

Ch&Vs.pkg  -  a Newton bible-analysis utility.

Method of use:

1. Install the onlineBible software on a desktop computer, and run several searches on the Latin Vulgate using different declensions of the search word. Save each search-result by appending the list of verses into a single text-note. For better results (and to avoid duplicate verses) make just one search using a combined search term. The software treats the pipe symbol as a Boolean OR e.g. use 'anima | animam | animas' etc. The list of results is made automatically by the software if the appropriate buttons are clicked. NB The Vulgate Apocryphal Books are provided in a separate download file, and the search-results-list will have to be created manually.

The onlineBible software produces lots of text for each search-word in this format:

  * search-word
  # 1Co 14:56  17:12  25:13,44,78
  # 1Ma 2:5,8  12:17  29:2
    etc etc

Multiple search results from single search-words can be quickly appended into one text file (and the bible Books become scattered), or a combined search-term will create just one text file (and the bible Books remain sorted).

2. Export the completed verse list into the Newton NotePad. On an old PC, the WinSlurp + Sloup combination is excellent and is almost entirely automatic. WinSlurp (difficult to locate these days) is a Windows front-end utility for Sloup on the Newton (which is still available here). For Sloup to work, the Newton requires a folder called TRANSFER in its notepad. The transfer will only take a few seconds.

NB Each note on the Newton needs to be less than ~4000 bytes. If necessary, split a large text file into several smaller files before transfer. Do not re-format the onlineBible text-file, and keep the same Book names as those supplied by onlineBible.

3. In the Newton, add the key word "bib-res1" (without the quotes) to the top of the first note. It should be the first line of the list of verses. Increment the number for each separate note if the original file has been split into several.

  bib-res1
  * search-word
  # 1Co 14:56  17:12  25:13,44,78
  # 1Ma 2:5,8  12:17  29:2
    etc etc

4. Start up Ch&Vs and proceed with the analysis. Ch&Vs will sort each Bible Book and display the Chapters and Verses in turn, and it will wait for a tap on Yes or No  i.e. is this verse on display also in the paper Bible being analysed ?

As the results are logged, new verses are displayed. The results can be saved into the NotePad when each Book is completed or at the end of the analysis. The utility can be closed at any time, and will always re-open to the start of a Book. Part scores are not saved, so each book needs to be completed on one run.

Ch&Vs will display the total number of verses in all the Books, the total number of verses in each Book, and it will keep a score of the Yes taps.

5. 'Soul' is used in this project, but obviously any other word can be used.

Making an accurate list of 'soul' occurrences in a bible is very difficult, and almost impossible.
Search-engines vary. Some only count verses, some count both verses and search-words. Some search the footnotes. Some allow combination search-terms, some allow wild-card characters. Combination searches can produce different results to single searches. Some Bibles are missing the Apocryphal Books. Some Bibles include optional Books in an Appendix. Some Bibles include footnotes, others don't. Some Bibles take their Psalms from Hebrew, and others from Greek. Others might use Old-Latin. Some Bibles use Hebrew Psalms but with Greek numbering. Some likely do the opposite.
 

Date: 5 May 2008.