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Bible Cross References Visualization

Here’s a visualization of 340,000 Bible cross references:

Visualization of Bible cross references.
Larger version (2,000 x 1,600 pixels).

Does anything strike you as intriguing? A few trends jump out at me:

  1. The frequency of dense New Testament streaks in the Old Testament, especially in Leviticus and Deuteronomy; I didn’t expect to see them there.
  2. The loops in Samuel / Kings / Chronicles and in the Gospels indicating parallel stories.
  3. The sudden increased density of New Testament references in Psalms through Isaiah.
  4. The eschatological references in Isaiah and Daniel.
  5. The density of references from the Minor Prophets back to both the Major Prophets and earlier in the Old Testament.
  6. The surprising density of cross references in Hebrew-Jude.
  7. The asymmetry. If verse A cites verse B, verse B doesn’t necessarily cite verse A. I wonder if I should make the data symmetrical.

You can also download the full-size image (10,000 x 8,000 pixels, 75 MB PNG). It’s a very large image that could crash your browser. If you want it, I strongly recommend that you save it to your computer rather than trying to open it in your browser.

This visualization uses data from the Bible Cross References project. I used PHP’s GD library to create the graphic.

Inspired by Chris Harrison and Christian Swinehart’s wonderful Choose Your Own Adventure work.

6 Responses to “Bible Cross References Visualization”

  1. openbible says:

    Also check out other Bible visualizations. The one showing Twitter verse popularity is probably my favorite, as it’s dense yet approachable.

  2. […] in Hebrew-Jude.Hit his site for all the details, including the massive 10kx8k full-resolution PNG.Bible Cross References Visualization « OpenBible.info Blog. About the Author: Randall Hand Randall Hand is a visualization scientist working for a federal […]

  3. […] Bible Cross References Visualization [openbible.info] highlights the frequent cross-referencing in the Bible, making a distinction between references that target events happening "before" or "after" the actual mentioning. From the variations in frequency and density, various insights can be made. […]

  4. […] This is what 340,000 cross-references in the Bible looks […]

  5. […] visualizations of a much larger data set – over 340,000 cross references.  The first is from OpenBible.info, the same site which is the source for my Bible Places explorer.  The second is found on the ESV […]

  6. […] Relaciones entre las profecías bíblicas […]