Artificial Intelligence for Bible Translation and Interpretation

Douglas Estes is Associate Professor of Religion at New College of Florida

Few developments are shaping modern life as rapidly as artificial intelligence, now making its mark across all fields—including biblical studies. This timely collection demonstrates the enormous and mostly positive impact of AI for biblical studies, particularly in areas of textual criticism, translation, and interpretation, while also examining important limitations and potential pitfalls. An impressive roster of contributors, including several with deep expertise in both religion and AI, provide historical context and insightful direction through the most promising and intriguing possibilities on the horizon

• Introduction - Douglas Estes (New College of Florida)Part One: AI and the Bible1: Unexpected Trajectories: Historical Interactions between Technology and the Bible - Wesley Viner (PhD cand., Princeton University)2 : AI in the Bible? A Way Forward - Douglas Estes (New College of Florida)3: The Bible as a Dataset for the Christian Mind - R. Daren Erisman (Minot State University)Part Two: AI and Bible Translation4: A Technical Overview of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence for Bible Translation - Marcus Schwarting (University of Chicago)5: Navigating AI in Bible Translation: Augmentative AI for Minority Languages - Cassie Weishaupt (BA&Sc, McGill University)6: AI Copilot and Bible Translation: Asking the Right Questions - Randall K. J. Tan (PhD, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary)7: AI and Bible Translation: The Function of Artificial Intelligence in the Social Construction of Biblical Meaning - Ryder A. Wishart (Regent University in Virginia)8: Render to AI What Is AI’s - Elizabeth Robar (PhD, University of Cambridge)Part Three: AI and Bible Interpretation9: Evaluating AI for the Digital Scholarly Edition: Tools for Translation and Interpretive Commentary - Ken M. Penner (St. Francis Xavier University)10: Open to Interpretation: The Jewish Canon and the Power of AI - Sara Tillinger Wolkenfeld (PhD cand., Gratz College)11: Statistical Interpretation of Religious Text Using Topic Modeling - Mark Graves (Fuller Theological Seminary)12: A Rudder in the Information Crisis: AI, the Tongue, and Divine Communication - Melanie Dzugan (PhD cand., Fuller Theological Seminary)13: Generating Apocalypse: Artificial Intelligence and Apocalyptic Literature - Douglas Estes (New College of Florida)