One of the beautiful things about the Bible is its intertextuality. Intertextuality, according to the all-knowing Wikipedia, is “the shaping of text’s meanings by other texts.” In the case of the Bible, we often say that Scripture interprets Scripture. Because of this element of God’s Word, the Bible’s books are not seen as something disconnected, but they are connected in many ways. Even though the Bible has many authors and styles and genres and books, it is still one coherent, consistent book.
This is a beautiful thing, and Chris Harrison has made it a beautiful visual thing. The title of his project is “Visualizing the Bible” and you all have to really check it out. Harrison visually links together all the cross references found in the Bible and the end result is something of information beauty. He also lays out places and names and their “social network” as well as some work with just names found in Scripture in regard to their place and prominence. Some amazing stuff. Go there now.
Pingback: greg willson » Blog Archive » Visualizing the Bible (again)