Scriptural Networks: Digital Exploration of Quotation Culture in Origen of Alexandria's Exegesis

In the ancient world, knowledge production was based on the use of quotations, so much so that scholars commonly refer to it as 'quotation culture.' This culture of quoting extended across various ancient civilizations, including Greek, Near Eastern, Hebrew, and Chinese societies. Early Christian communities were no exception, as their theologies were drawn from the biblical texts.

Analysing their citation patterns is essential in unravelling their thought processes.My project aims to redefine our understanding of early Christian quotation culture by employing digital network analysis (NA) techniques applied to the extensive works of the renown theologian Origen of Alexandria (3rd century).

Origen's focus on biblical interpretation and his enduring influence makes him an ideal case-study.

I will conduct an analysis of Origen's whole corpus using NA graphs and social network analysis, thus uncovering relationships and patterns within his biblical quotations.

By looking at Origen’s use of biblical quotations as sets of interconnected relations, the project seeks to investigate how he derived his theological doctrines – particularly his doctrine of religious freedom – from the Bible.

The proposed NA methodologies have never been applied to ancient texts, representing a groundbreaking approach that opens new research directions into the study of quotation culture.

This innovative methodology holds promise not only for the study of early Christianity but also for a wide range of text-related disciplines.In collaboration with AU Department of Theology and the Centre for Humanities Computing (CHC), the project will achieve two objectives.

O1: Develop a novel digital approach for studying quotation culture, resulting in the creation of an open-access and open-source custom-built graph database for visualizing clusters of biblical references in Origen’s work. O2: Explore the concept of religious freedom in Origen's work using the newly developed NA methodology.