OLD TESTAMENT LAYERING - ISAIAH PERIOD
The spreadsheet below continues the formating system I described on the previous page. Where previously, the books 'dated' off of Samuel, the next group mainly 'dates' off of Isaiah. For the neural networks, I broke Isaiah into Isaiah 1 (chapters 1-40) and Isaiah 2 (41 plus). I probably should have also broken up 'Isaiah 3' as well (maybe the next analyses!). What is interesting is that Isaiah 1 and 2 are clearly separate periods, but are very likely the same writer, judging from the vocabulary patterns.
In almost all cases of books analyzed, Isaiah 1 is 'earlier' than Isaiah 2, and the syntactical distance (time) is about the same. I find that amazing, since each OT book is analyzed separately (no chance for mathematical cross-over). By virtue of the syntactic distance, you can also 'date' the related books 'earlier' or 'later' than Isaiah fairly reliably. I don't know when Isaiah actually wrote, but per the syntax pattern, it was around the time of Hosea/Amos.
Illustration below:
[1] The four vertical lines represent the Isaiah 'dating', two for Isaiah 1 and two for Isaiah 2. As with the Samuel, all of the books in this group have an Isaiah component, most both Isaiah 1 and 2. Even though the Isaiah lines start high up, the actual Isaiah book dating is further down (around Amos).
[2] Zephaniah and Deuteronomy 'date' almost at the same time. This is fairly consistent with the 'discovered' law later in the time of Josiah.
[3] This is where Isaiah is probably 'dated'. Probably between the time of Hosea and Amos.
[4] Even though Zechariah is located next to Isaiah 2, they have little relation to each other. Zechariah is more closely related to Deutoronomy on the early side, and Ezekiel, on the late side. I'm not sure why there's little Isaiah 'dating' in Zechariah.
[5] Malachai is quite interesting. He links syntactically to almost everyone in this 'dating' range. Even Zechariah. He's a 'party-boy'! (well, in terms of 'dating' anyway).
[6] Song of Solomon and Ecclesiastes show up in this area, being linked off of Isaiah, and to some degree Deutoronomy. Assuming the associations, obviously there was romanticism and sadness in the air. Probably by this time, Assyria had taken all of the Judean cities except Jerusalem? This also shows how poetry can link to prose fairly reliably, in a neural network environment.
[7] Leviticus is very much located in-between the time of Isaiah 2 and Jeremiah. I'd have to assume it was a 'Jerusalem product', on or after the Josiah reformation.
[8] Jeremiah is a little odd. In the commentaries, he's associated with a lot of the writing activity. Syntactically, he is isolated, but does show up as an 'editor' in the 'earlier' writings. Ezekiel is about the same 'time', but has little connectivity to Jeremiah (both tie to Isaiah 'dating' separately). Presumably Jeremiah/Baruch went 'south' and Ezekiel went 'east'. But both were still tied to the Isaiah group. Note how close 'Job' is, in syntax.
[9] Nehemiah is the only writer that links to both the Isaiah group and the exilic group. His Isaiah linkage, I suspect, is in the form of editing, since there is a very high connection to Ezra.
[10] Here are shown both Genesis and Exodus. Even though the 'dating' is similar to Jeremiah/Ezekiel, there are only syntactical linkages to Isaiah (and very weak). The jews had a tradition of Ezra doing the OT writing, so maybe the Genesis/Exodus final formation is about this general period. This analysis places the final Torah formation probably in the very early portion of the exile. Could be Ezra.
Interpeting this overall, some of these positionings I find a little odd (Levitius around Josiah's time, and Jeremiah being isolated). I'm not surprised with Genesis/Exodus or Deutoronomy. The other thing that does surprise me, is that so much seems to be missing from the period. But I'd suppose, with good old 'Nebbie' at the gates of Jerusalem, they could only carry so many books with them.
Go to next page for the post-exile group of books.