How Scriptoria is made

THE TEXT

The text is the source's, word for word. Only the presentation is ours: the paragraphs, and the lines of poetry gathered into a single verse. The translation's footnotes come with the text. If we ever correct an error in the source, the correction will have an author and a reason, and it will stay on record. Verses that differ from the source today: 0.

THE PLACES

Each place's identification comes from OpenBible.info, with the degree of certainty it carries: known, approximate, debated or unknown, and the page says which. On the English site, a place's name is the English name OpenBible.info gives it. On the Portuguese site, it is the name the Bíblia Portuguesa Mundial itself prints in the verses that mention the place; when the text doesn't support a name ("Beyond the River" is a description, not a name), the place keeps OpenBible's English name rather than disappearing from the map or getting an invented one.

Distances are measured in a straight line between the atlas's coordinates, and only between places whose location is known or approximate: a debated location gives a number the sources don't support, and a region or a river has no single point in the world. We give two significant figures (miles first, then kilometers) and always say "about," because that is the precision of the data. The "on foot" estimate assumes 30 km (about 19 miles) a day on a road 1.3 times as long as the straight line, up to 400 km (about 250 miles). It rests on the Roman army's marching pace in Vegetius (Epitoma rei militaris 1.9); on Stanford University's ORBIS model, which puts Roman roads at 1.2 to 1.4 times the straight line; and on the measure the Bible itself uses, "they traveled on for a day" (Luke 2:44) and "a three-day journey" (Genesis 30:36). Beyond 400 km, the sea and the season decide, and the atlas doesn't guess.

THE PEOPLE

A person is added with the passages that name them. A family tie is added only with the verse that states it; what tradition says and the text doesn't is left out. People who share a name get an epithet ("daughter of David") so they aren't confused. Each person points to their Wikidata item, checked against the family ties: the father Wikidata gives has to be the father the text gives. That's how the two Josephs and the two Jacobs don't get mixed up.

THE DATES

Each period states its basis: dated by the text itself, counted from the text or historical reconstruction, with its margin (such as "c." or "between AD 30 and 33") and the evidence. A passage nobody has dated stays undated: an invented date next to a verse is worse than none.

THE QUESTIONS

A question starts as a draft, is reviewed by a curator and only then goes live, always with the verse that holds the answer. Once it has appeared for the first time, it is sealed: a correction becomes a new question that replaces the old one, and the old address leads to the new one. Found a question that's wrong? Let us know through the contact page, below.

WHAT WE ASK GOOGLE TO INDEX

Every book and every chapter. A verse page only when its context carries weight: the text counts 1, each kind of context (a place on the map, a person, an event, a question, a study board) counts 1, the dated period counts 2 and the page needs a total of 3. A place alone isn't enough: thousands of verses mention a place, and the map and the name are already on the place's page. Cross-references appear on every verse that has them, but they don't count: the same file is on dozens of sites. The other verse pages exist and load, but they point to the chapter: we don't want to fill anyone's search results with thousands of pages that only repeat a verse.

FOUND A MISTAKE?

Write to us through the contact page and include the page's address. It's exactly the kind of message we want to get.