The Mathematics of the King James Bible (1611)

The King James Bible was a translation project involving 47 scholars. The mathematics of translation includes information theory (preserving meaning while changing form), combinatorial optimisation (word choice), and stylometry (statistical analysis of authorship). The KJV’s style – rhythmic, parallel – can be described by fractal patterns. Bible codes (equidistant letter sequences) are a pseudoscience, but the mathematics of text analysis is real. The Bible’s length (783,137 words) and structure (chapters, verses) are a mathematical object that has been studied for centuries.