Social network analysis of the biblical Moses

Abstract

Here, social network analysis approaches are used to characterize the figure of the biblical Moses, and his relationship with characters from the books of the Pentateuch; Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The potential value of using such quantitative approaches is explored in relation to other forms of textual exegesis. Using a maximum likelihood approach, the degree distributions of the social networks are shown to approximate to a power law with exponential cutoff. The node representing Moses is very highly connected and falls outside the best fit line, as does the node representing Yahweh, which may indicate authorial emphasis. Only the social network from Genesis is assortative, a property typical of many real world social networks. A substantial proportion of disassortativity in the social network based around Moses disappears when the node is removed, potentially indicating some artificiality in its orientation within the network. The approximation of the degree distributions to a power law with exponential cutoff represents an emergent property resulting from the combinatorial and collaborative manner of composition, and indicates a bounding constraint on more highly connected nodes. Unusually highly connected nodes representing the deity and prophet may be characteristic of social networks derived from religious texts.