The topic of my senior thesis for my history degree was that history is the study of the world through metadata (in contrast to physicalism which says that science is the study of the world through data).
I used Wikipedia as an example since the prevailing wisdom is that you cannot use it as a primary source. I argued that the metadata such as the edit history and talk pages constituted a legitimate primary source. For instance, if we wanted to argue that a certain topic is controversial (e.g. the administration of George W. Bush), we could look at the velocity of edits (especially undos) and the discussion on the Talk page.
Interestingly, many of the Gospels are pretty much branches of one another, or one shared historical source:
Matthew 8:2-3 [1]
2 and there was a leper who came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.” 3 He stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I do choose. Be made clean!” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
Mark 1:40-42 [2]
40 A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” 41 Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I do choose. Be made clean!” 42 Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.
Luke 5:12-13 [3]
12 Once, when he was in one of the cities, there was a man covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he bowed with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.” 13 Then Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, “I do choose. Be made clean.” Immediately the leprosy left him.
It would be very interesting to see a project where someone built a git repository to reflect a plausible genesis of the synoptic gospels. Extra points if you get the rewriting in, too.
I really like what GitBook is doing. We had to pretty much set up our own similar system for Discover Meteor, and it was clear a better way was needed.
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[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 21.3 ms ] threadImagine if we had the revision history for The Hobbit.
I used Wikipedia as an example since the prevailing wisdom is that you cannot use it as a primary source. I argued that the metadata such as the edit history and talk pages constituted a legitimate primary source. For instance, if we wanted to argue that a certain topic is controversial (e.g. the administration of George W. Bush), we could look at the velocity of edits (especially undos) and the discussion on the Talk page.
Looked for a better way to contact you in your profile, but your homepage seems to be broken.
Matthew 8:2-3 [1]
2 and there was a leper who came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.” 3 He stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I do choose. Be made clean!” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
Mark 1:40-42 [2]
40 A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” 41 Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I do choose. Be made clean!” 42 Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.
Luke 5:12-13 [3]
12 Once, when he was in one of the cities, there was a man covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he bowed with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.” 13 Then Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, “I do choose. Be made clean.” Immediately the leprosy left him.
It would be very interesting to see a project where someone built a git repository to reflect a plausible genesis of the synoptic gospels. Extra points if you get the rewriting in, too.
[1] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mt+8%3A2%E2%80%...
[2] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mk+1%3A40%E2%80...
[3] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Lk+5%3A12%E2%80...