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I am trying to determine which book of the Bible is the least dense, lexically speaking.

I found an app called Wordsworth that can determine lexical density for a single text, I thought there might already be a source which has measured the relative density for each text.

I'm not a linguist, so I am not sure if I am using these terms correctly, but I'm curious which book of the Bible uses the simplest language/smallest vocabulary. I recognize that this could vary for various translations, so I'd be happy with results from any translation.

user11174
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  • At a guess, The Second Epistle of John. It would be worth looking at the older sections of Job (the opening narrative and the closing verses). Amos, because it is early. – Hugh Dec 31 '15 at 16:07
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    @Hugh. I trust you are aware that 2John was written in Greek but Job and Amos in Hebrew, and that they are thus not really comparable. If you are using a translation you should tell us which one. – fdb Jan 01 '16 at 01:03
  • @fdb John II in Good News would be as elemental as anything ever written, wouldn't it? But Genesis is the obvious text to cut one's teeth on because it is familiar and predictable. Happy New Year & All Best Wishes. – Hugh Jan 01 '16 at 01:16
  • You would have to decide on which text/translation you want to compare it on. Obviously you'll get different results in a 1000 word vocab list translation than for others. But you need to decide what you want to know about, we can't decide that for you. – curiousdannii Jan 01 '16 at 09:00
  • @curiousdannii I acknowledged that there could be variation, and I said I would be happy with results from any translation. Of course, if this data doesn't already exist, I would be surprised if you chose a 1000 word vocabulary translation, knowing what you know. – user11174 Jan 03 '16 at 07:14

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