Book of Mormon Books: Length vs LDS Conference Citations

As a follow up to my previous posts on the Old Testament and New Testament, here is the same analysis for the Book of Mormon:

And the citation/length ratio shows which books are more heavily cited compared to their length:

Book	Citation/Length
Moroni	3.4
Enos	2.2
2 Ne	1.4
3 Ne	1.2
Mos	1.1

You will notice that, for the most part, the number of citations per book is relatively on par with the number of verse in the book. Overall, the Book of Mormon has a more even distribution of "scripture gold" than what is seen in the Old Testament or New Testament. However, going a step further, I wanted to see what chapters in the Book of Mormon were the most cited. Below is a list of the top 50 cited chapters in the Book of Mormon in order of citation from greatest to least (# citations in parentheses). Next time you want to read the Book of Mormon, try reading in citation order rather than from beginning to end!

2 Ne 2 (408)

Moroni 7 (357)

Moroni 10 (313)

Mosiah 4 (259)

Alma 5 (258)

2 Ne 31 (258)

3 Ne 11 (255)

3 Ne 27 (249)

Alma 34 (238)

Mosiah 3 (234)

2 Ne 9 (230)

Mosiah 18 (208)

Alma 42 (198)

Alma 32 (194)

Ether 12 (175)

Mosiah 2 (159)

2 Ne 25 (155)

3 Ne 18 (153)

Alma 37 (145)

Alma 7 (144)

3 Ne 17 (144)

Mosiah 5 (142)

Helaman 5 (135)

1 Ne 8 (133)

2 Ne 28 (130)

2 Ne 32 (122)

3 Ne 12 (119)

1 Ne 3 (117)

Alma 36 (115)

Jacob 4 (111)

1 Ne 11 (107)

Alma 41 (103)

Enos 1 (100)

3 Ne 9 (99)

1 Ne 17 (98)

2 Ne 26 (92)

Alma 13 (91)

Alma 12 (91)

Mosiah 27 (91)

Alma 26 (90)

Moroni 6 (83)

1 Ne 15 (77)

Moroni 8 (74)

Alma 29 (73)

Jacob 2 (71)

2 Ne 1 (68)

Alma 39 (67)

Mormon 8 (67)

4 Ne 1 (66)

Sources:

For Book of Mormon verse count see http://scripturetools.net/resources

For Book of Mormon conference citations see http://scriptures.byu.edu

Old Testament Books: Length vs LDS Conference Citations

As a follow up to my previous post, here's the same analysis done with books of the Old Testament:

And for the ratio of Citation % / Book Length %, the top books (ratio > 1) are:

Book	Citation/Length
Malachi	15.6
Obadiah	3.2
Isaiah	2.9
Amos	2.7
Genesis	2.1
Exodus	1.8
Daniel	1.7
Proverbs	1.5
Joel	1.4
Ecclesiastes	1.3
1 Samuel	1.3
Micah	1.2
Joshua	1.1

A few of these books, might be what you call One-Hit Wonders. They have one verse that gets quoted a lot and that drives up the citations for the whole book. For example in Obadiah, all the citations are for verse 21, and Amos 3:7 carries half the weight for Amos's citations. However, if you're looking for good books to study, Malachi, Isaiah, and Genesis are great places to start. After all, the Lord calls out Malachi and Isaiah specifically in the Book of Mormon (see 3 Nephi 24:1 and 3 Nephi 23:1.)

Speaking of Book Mormon...next blog post will be on Book of Mormon.

Notes on sources:

LDS Conference scripture citations are based on citations from 1971 to 2016 from the LDS Scripture Citation Index (http://scriptures.byu.edu/)

Old Testament verse statistics were from online at http://catholic-resources.org/Bible/OT-Statistics-NAB.htm; apocryphal books were excluded.

New Testament Books: Length vs LDS Conference Citations

What if you took your New Testament, stretched it out tall like a bar graph, and then color coded the sides of the pages so you could compare the relative length of each book in the New Testament? You'd get a sense for how much each author wrote in each book. And although every reader of the New Testament knows that "all scripture...is profitable" (see 2 Tim 3:16), yet there are some parts that spiritually "yield...thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred" (see Mark 4:8).

How would you find which parts might yield the quotable, ponderable scriptures? One way is to look at which books are cited the most in LDS General Conference. The books cited the most could be considered the "hundred-yield" parts of the New Testament.

Below is a bar graph showing just such a comparison. On the left is the graph showing the relative length of each book in the New Testament based on the number of verses (click on picture to see larger version).

A few interesting points to notice are that Matthew and John show an increase in citations whereas Acts is noticeably diminished, relative to their lengths. 2 Timothy is noticeably larger and Revelation is about half the size in the Citations column vs the Book Length column.

In fact, if you wanted to see which books carry more than their own weight (or length) in citations, you could divide their value in the Citations graph by their value in the Book Length graph and get a ratio. Below is the list of all the books that have a ratio > 1, meaning they get cited more than what their # of verses would merit if every verse got cited equally.

So if you're looking for some good New Testament study, start with James and 2 Timothy--they're relatively short and packed with good stuff!

Book	Citation/Length
James	1.9
2 Timothy	1.9
Matthew	1.9
Ephesians	1.8
John	1.7
1 Peter	1.5
2 Peter	1.2
1 Corinthians	1.2

Coming soon...Old Testament Book Length vs Citations

Notes on information sources:

LDS Conference scripture citations are based on citations from 1971 to 2016 from the LDS Scripture Citation Index (http://scriptures.byu.edu/)

New Testament verse statistics were from online at http://catholic-resources.org/Bible/NT-Statistics-Greek.htm

Conference by the Numbers: October 2017

Here it is: Conference by the Numbers, October 2017. If you'd like to know a little more how I got the numbers, you can visit this blog post. But basically, the "% Increase over Average # of mentions" is calculated by the frequency with which a word is referenced in October 2017 Conference divided by the average frequency with which the same word is referenced in all conferences from 1971 to 2017 minus 100%. The # of mentions shows how many times the word was used in October 2017 Conference. Thus, the word "Light" was mentioned about 200% more than the average conference. In other words, it was referenced ~120 times in October 2017, but usually it is referenced about 40 times.

For a few words and phrases, I wanted to look at how the conference usage has increased or decreased over time. Below are a few graphs of words showing their frequency of usage (# of times the word was used) vs the conference session. It is interesting to see which words/phrases have increased over time and which have just gone up or down depending on the conference.

Lastly, as a tribute to Elder Robert D. Hales, who passed away Oct. 1, 2017, I did an analysis of his talks over the last 30-40 years. You can see some of the words he emphasized in the Word Cloud below. I will miss Elder Hales' ministry and testimony that he gave, even while facing personal trials and hardship.

Conference by the Numbers: April 2017

It's time again for Conference By the Numbers: April 2017. If you didn't get to watch or listen to conference, you can read, listen, or watch here.

First, a few notes on the infographic. As with the past two Conference By the Numbers (October 2016 and April 2016), the main graphic focuses on emphasized words from conference talks. The horizontal axis indicates how many times a word was mentioned during the conference, in the text of the talk or in the footnotes. The vertical axis shows how the frequency of usage compared to an average conference. For example, an average conference would use the word "felt" about 25 times. This conference, the word was used 100% more, or about 50 times.

After looking at some of the emphasized words, I noticed that several words seemed to go in pairs, such as "Holy Ghost" or "Heavenly Father." I did a separate search to see how often these word combinations. In the box above the graph, you can see how many times the exact phrases "Doctrine and Covenants," "Holy Ghost," and "Heavenly Father" are used.

After looking over the emphasized words, I notice a theme of referring to the Godhead (Heavenly Father, Savior, Holy Ghost, see Elder Oaks' talk), the plan of salvation (President Eyring, Elder Oaks), and feeling or hearing the voice of the Holy Ghost (see Elder Stevenson, Elder Rasband).

For top scriptures, Moses 1:39 is not a surprise--it consistently comes in at the top at general conference (see this post). John 3:16 is also not a big surprise, given its wide popularity in Christendom. While not an obscure scripture, 2 Ne 28:30 usually doesn't come out in the top 10 list of cited scriptures. However, it is an appropriate reference for this conference given the emphasis on the Holy Ghost.

Of course, this is only a sampling of some of the topics that were emphasized in conference. What stood out to you from conference?

Conference by the Numbers: October 2016

Listen to October 2016 conference at https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2016/10?lang=eng

 

A few notes on the infographic:

The most cited scripture chapter and verse are based on the chapter / verse cited by the most speakers. Some scriptures were cited multiple times by the same speakers, but these repeat citations weren't counted.

All word data is based on conference talks available online at lds.org. This limits the range of comparison from conference in 1971 to the present.

Emphasized words were selected based on words that occurred with above-average frequency during the October 2016 general conference.  Additional details on word comparison methods can be found at this blog post: http://visualscriptures.blogspot.com/2015/01/top-20-words-of-ezra-taft-benson.html

Conference by the Numbers, April 2016

What topics were mentioned most frequently or especially emphasized during the April 2016 General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? Take a look at the infographic below and see which words occurred with higher frequency than the average general conference. You can also see some of the words that were used for the very first time in a general conference--including the very first Star Wars reference that I could find. (Note: "all" conferences means conferences going back to April 1971, the earliest for which transripts are provided online at lds.org)