Knuth 教圣经

在听说 Donald E. KNUTH (中文名字叫高德纳) 的 The Art of Computer Programming 以前, 我曾悲观地怀疑朗道 (Лев Давидович Ландау) 或许是我们这个时代最后一个百科全书式的学者(如果能这么说的话).

高德纳的《计算机程序设计艺术》計劃出版七卷，该书自第三卷于二十世纪七十年代初版以来，一直沒有下一卷的進展。因此他自1990年起就停止使用电子邮件（高德納自1975年就開始使用電子郵件[3]）以专心撰写余下的四卷。最新消息是，第四卷將至少出成4A、4B、4C三本，目前已有部分草稿釋出。

在计算机科學以外，高德纳亦著有關於聖經的書藉 3:16 Bible Texts Illuminated (1991), ISBN 0895792524 。被視為计算机科學家少有的作品。

Source: Wikipedia.

这就是 Knuth 的那本 3:16 Bible Texts Illuminated:

是 Knuth 业余在查经小组教学的成果. 要在几个月的时间里, 学习一本圣经自然不是什么容易的事情, 要系统地研读每一卷恐怕时间上并不允许, 而如果只是摘寻章句, 又如何统其大义? 作为一个数学家, Knuth 把整本圣经当作母体, 采取分层抽样(stratified sampling)的方法, 把每一卷的第3章16节作为样本. 第一次看到这本书的时候我以为题目里少了个“John”, 其原因就是约翰福音 3:16 太有名了, Knuth 写道:

My proposal was to study Chapter 3, verse 16 of every book in the Bible. Of course, I have to admit that this suggestion loaded the dice a bit, since John 3:16 is perhaps the most famous verse of all. You might say that my choice of verse 3:16 revealed a certain lack of faith, since I enriched the sample by making it better than truly random selection. Perhaps I was secretly afraid that the whole Bible class would turn out to be a dud, so I needed to make sure that I could at least get the Gospel message across. On the other hand, my choice of 3:16 affected only one data point; the 3:16 rule didn’t cause any significant bias at all, except with respect to the study of John’s gospel. And the fame of John 3:16 is actually a plus, because it makes the selection rule easy to remember.

. . .

Chapter-and-verse designations weren’t part of the Bible until long after the words were written, and no theological significance was attached to the numbers when they were assigned. Therefore verse 3:16 has no special reason (except, of course, in the gospel of John). That is exactly what we want, for stratified sampling. . . . (Foreword)

在旧约 39 卷, 新约 27 卷中, 一共有 59 节 3:16, 所以掐头去尾, 全书一共由 59 个部分组成, 每部分四页, Knuth 先用一页的篇幅介绍书卷的背景, 紧接着是一页经文的书法, 然后就是两页经文的解说. 据他在前言里说, 这次树木森林兼顾的尝试在查经班取得了意想不到的成功.

本书由 Knuth 的 TeX 和 METAFONT 排版.

Update: 3:16 Bible Texts Illuminated 主页

The text found in chapter 3, verse 16, of most books in the Bible is a typical verse with no special distinction. But when Knuth examined what leading scholars throughout the centuries have written about those verses, he found that there is a fascinating story to be learned in every case, full of historical and spiritual insights. This book presents jargon-free introductions to each book of the Bible and in-depth analyses of what people from many different religious persuasions have said about the texts found in chapter 3, verse 16, together with 60 original illustrations by many of the world's leading calligraphers.

The result is a grand tour of the Bible -- from Genesis 3:16 to Revelation 3:16 -- a treat for the mind, the eyes, and the spirit.