The Use of Psalms in the Homilies of Severian of Gabala - Data

Author

Affiliation

Annette von Stockhausen

Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften

Keywords

Homilies, Psalms, Severian of Gabala

Introduction

The following visualisations are based on data (TEI XML editions of Severian’s homilies) from the Patristic Text Archive (PTA) – Severian of Gabala in its not yet published version (“inprogress” branch; -> released public branch data on Github). The TEI editions consist of annotated editions mainly from Migne’s Patrologia Graeca (reprinting Savile’s edition) and, where extant, of the new critical editions made by the project Die alexandrinische und antiochenische Bibelexegese in der Spätantike (editors: Jacopo Marcon, Jessica Tasselli, Annette von Stockhausen).

For the analysis, the original Greek versions of the homilies have been used, where available, otherwise the extant translations. The homilies extant only in Armenian translation have not yet been annotated and are therefore missing in the analysis.

All biblical references annotated in the TEI editions have been parsed by a Python script (adapted from a Python script written by me for the Indices of the PTA, cf. https://github.com/PatristicTextArchive/pta_metadata/blob/main/scripts/Index_biblereferences_PTA.py). The results have been written to a json-File, which has the following structure for each entry:

    {
        "ID": "LXX:1Chr:17:8",
        "title": [
            "pta0001.pta023 Contra Iudaeos in serpentem aeneum",
            "pta0001.pta023 Contra Iudaeos in serpentem aeneum"
        ],
        "urn": [
            "pta0001.pta023.pta-grc1:b87",
            "pta0001.pta023.pta-grc1:b88"
        ],
        "quote_text": [
            "Καὶ ἐποίησά σοι ὄνομα, καθὼς τὸ ὄνομα τῶν ἀρχαίων τῶν βασιλέων.",
            "ἐποίησά σοι ὄνομα"
        ],
        "edition": "LXX",
        "book": "1Chr",
        "reference": "17:8",
        "chapter": "17",
        "versFrom": "",
        "versTo": "",
        "CTS": [
            "urn:cts:pta:pta9999.pta013.pta-grc1:17.8"
        ],
        "text": "καὶ ἤμην μετὰ σοῦ ἐν πᾶσιν, οἷς ἐπορεύθης, καὶ ἐξωλέθρευσα πάντας τοὺς ἐχθρούς σου ἀπὸ προσώπου σου καὶ ἐποίησά σοι ὄνομα κατὰ τὸ ὄνομα τῶν μεγάλων τῶν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς. "
    },

The entries in title, urn, and quote_text are corresponding with each other (first title: first urn: first quote_text, second titel: second urn: second quote_text), CTS is the urn of the bible reference and text has the text of the biblical reference (LXX = Rahlfs, NT = SBLGNT); the urn refers to the text, the letter b and a number after the colon is the ID (count) of the biblical reference within this text which is also used in PTA.

The Python code for the visualisations has been written with the help of GPT-5.6 Luna (through https://duck.ai/).

CAVEAT: There may be still errors and inconsistencies in the annotation of biblical quotations. Though, they might not anymore have negative influence on the general accuracy of the results.

If you like to see larger (full size) versions of the graphics, click within the graphic.

Which biblical books are quoted?

This plot shows on the y-axis all of Severian’s homilies with their PTA-ID and their Latin title and on the x-axis all biblical books quoted in Severians homilies. The size of the circles corresponds to the number of quotations of the respective biblical book within the respective homily.

Which psalms are quoted?

This plot shows on the y-axis again all of Severian’s homilies with their PTA-ID and their Latin title. On the x-axis all psalms are shown; the circles mark which psalms are quoted in each of Severians homilies, the size of the circles corresponds to the number of quotations of the respective psalm. The homily pta0001.pta033, a fragment, is missing, as it does not quote any psalm.

Where are the psalms quoted in the text

This plot shows the psalm quotations in the sequence of each homily; the reference for the calculation used is the number of all biblical quotations and the position is therefore plotted relative to the number of references in the respective text. If a quotation of a Psalm is the first or last quotation in the text, the circle is colored yellow or red and the title of the homily is printed in bold. The homily pta0001.pta033, a fragment, is missing, as it does not quote any psalm.

Frequency of Psalm Quotations

This plot shows on the x-axis all 150 psalms and on the y-axis how often each psalm is quoted within the homilies of Severian (the different colors of the bars represent the different homilies). There are several psalms never quoted.

Network of quoted psalms and texts

This visualisation is a network of all psalms (blue dots) and all homilies by Severian (yellow dots). The edges between the psalms and the homilies show, which psalms are quoted in which homilies (and vice versa), the width of the edges represents the amount of quotations. If you hover over the edges, the titles of the homilies and numbers of the psalms are shown. On the outer rim are the psalms which are not quoted in the homilies. The homily pta0001.pta033, a fragment, is missing, as it does not quote any psalm.