AI agAIn: ChatGPT, BibleMate, Gemini, Claude, Logos

In previous posts (here and work back) I looked at ChatGPT and BibleMate to see what they would do with some basic Bible questions. AI has come a long way in the last year or so. I just read a thread on Twitter (x) where someone compared Gemini, Claude, and the latest ChatGPT4. He was testing to see whether AI 'hallucinates.' I.e., when prompted (and encouraged or challenged) with a falsehood, is the AI able to detect it? Or does it create information to validate it? The person created 2 prompts regarding some false, fantastical claims about Elon Musk. Here are the results. (click on graphic to go to x thread)

Gemini really went all in and created all sorts of false validation. Claude was the most reliable, but what struck this person was that ChatGPT seemed to 'learn' from it's first mistake and improved its response.

I played around a bit again with the various engines. BibleMate still reflects a rather literal, 'conservative' response to Bible questions. All of them can generate excellent results (e.g., answering questions like: Did Jesus say, "Heaven helps those who help themselves"? or finding biblical texts or creating outlines of biblical books), but as always results need to be checked. 

I'm still checking out the integration of AI into Logos Bible software. Working off a more curated database, it does offer the prospect of more reliable and helpful answers.

MARBLE: Modular Aggregation of Resources on the Bible

 

I just came across this MARBLE site, but it appears to be the successor of SemanticDictionary.org, a project by the United Bible Societies headed by Reinier DeBlois. When I first reported on this back in 2008 (!), it was a new resource for Old Testament study linked to the Semantic Dictionary of the Hebrew Bible. It has now been greatly enhanced and has New Testament Greek resources as well. From the website:

 MARBLE stands for Modular Aggregation of Resources on the Bible 

This website, published by the United Bible Societies (UBS), gives free access to a number of important Bible background resources, including: 

• The Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS) 
• The UBS Greek New Testament (5th edition, UBSGNT5) 
• The Semantic Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (SDBH, edited by Reinier de Blois) 
• The Semantic Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (SDGNT, based on Louw and Nida's lexicon) 
• Thousands of Bible images and video clips linked to Bible passages 

Along with the Hebrew and Greek texts, it is cross-linked and has cross-highlighting with the 1952 RSV. (I.e., when working with a biblical text, clicking on either the Hebrew/Greek or English word, it will bring up the original language dictionary entry.)

The inclusion of images and videos (which can be accessed either through an image / video search or when working on the Bible text and clicking on a link bringing up images / videos associated with that chapter of the Bible.

Probably the most helpful aspects of this site that integrates information that takes a bit more work to access even in Accordance or Logos are the Semantic Dictionaries. I'm guessing that its initial roots in the Hebrew, there is more information provided for Hebrew lexemes, but for both Hebrew and Greek, not only is lexical meaning provided, but there is also information on the lexical domain. (For the Hebrew, there is also information on Contextual Domain and Collocations.) If you have used Louw-Nida, you will be familiar with what is being done here, but the MARBLE site makes it very easy to use, see lexical relationships, and navigate around.

E.g., here is just a portion of the kind of information provided for a word like אב.

 And here is just a portion of the information for χάρις.

It's definitely worth checking out this site, and it serves as a great supplement to something like the STEP Bible site if you don't have Accordance or Logos.

(HT: I learned about MARBLE through a DataDrivenBiblicalStudies video on YouTube. I think it's by Dirk Roorda, and he also uses a Text-Fabric web app that is quite impressive.)

In the Footsteps of St Paul: Museum Exhibition in Greece

Via Egnatia toward Kavala

The Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki in Greece is hosting a temporary exhibition until 30 April 2025, "In the Footsteps of Paul." The exhibit is described in this way.

The museum narrative of the exhibition was structured based on the Second Apostolic Journey of Paul in Greece, in a revised framework of documentation and reconstruction, according to the text of the Acts of the Apostles, his letters to the newly founded Christian Churches and his associates, historical and archaeological research, but also the oral tradition that preserved the memory of the Apostle unaltered. The goal is to connect the apostolic journey with archaeological sites and monuments of the Greco-Roman era, the Jewish Diaspora and the Christian world at the then stations of the Apostle's tour and current cities of modern Greece. (translated by Google; original in Greek here)

There is also a downloadable PDF brochure describing Paul's journey here. One minor detail that is a bit out of the ordinary is the conclusion that when leaving Athens, Paul sailed to Cenchreae and then walked to Corinth. (IMO, this is a correct conclusion. It's easy enough to walk from Athens to Eleusis, but it's a challenging hike after that.) The "cultural route" described in the journey notes that the exhibit also includes Nicopolis that Paul appears to have planned to visit. (Titus 3.12)

The exhibit will be in Athens this summer. More information will be forthcoming soon about other opportunities, but for now, check out the hiking guides I have provided:

• Neapolis / Kavala to Philippi
• Beroea to Pydna
• Corinth to Lechaion
• Corinth to Cenchreae