New algorithm being developed for discovering Josephus's sources

[Harel13]

https://www.israelhayom.co.il/magazine/hashavua/article/13196308

I'm sorry this article is in Hebrew. I was unable to find one in English. And it's a few weeks old, but I only thought of making a thread on it today...

There's a team of researchers in Israel who are well on their way in developing a computer algorithm that would be able to analyze Josephus's writings and decide which parts were written by him, which were based on other sources and which were copied verbatim from other sources. I put this in Religious News because the team mentioned in the interview that the algorithm should, theoretically, be able to tell us whether the Testimonium Flavianum was written by him or by someone else. This algorithm, will, of course, have other useful applications as well, such as identifying places where Josephus copied from Nicholas of Damascus.

 

[Wandering Monk]

https://www.israelhayom.co.il/magazine/hashavua/article/13196308

I'm sorry this article is in Hebrew. I was unable to find one in English. And it's a few weeks old, but I only thought of making a thread on it today...

There's a team of researchers in Israel who are well on their way in developing a computer algorithm that would be able to analyze Josephus's writings and decide which parts were written by him, which were based on other sources and which were copied verbatim from other sources. I put this in Religious News because the team mentioned in the interview that the algorithm should, theoretically, be able to tell us whether the Testimonium Flavianum was written by him or by someone else. This algorithm, will, of course, have other useful applications as well, such as identifying places where Josephus copied from Nicholas of Damascus.

Way cool. Now, do the same with the Torah.

 

[Heyo]

https://www.israelhayom.co.il/magazine/hashavua/article/13196308

I'm sorry this article is in Hebrew. I was unable to find one in English. And it's a few weeks old, but I only thought of making a thread on it today...

There's a team of researchers in Israel who are well on their way in developing a computer algorithm that would be able to analyze Josephus's writings and decide which parts were written by him, which were based on other sources and which were copied verbatim from other sources. I put this in Religious News because the team mentioned in the interview that the algorithm should, theoretically, be able to tell us whether the Testimonium Flavianum was written by him or by someone else. This algorithm, will, of course, have other useful applications as well, such as identifying places where Josephus copied from Nicholas of Damascus.

I guess they are using some variation of existing plagiarism checkers. The machine learning based ones are pretty accurate, even if the original source isn't known, the difference in style often betrays the plagiarist.