Saturday 5 March 2011

Plagiarism and Text Citation - Bible (II)

This has been a long and difficult investigation. But I am sad to report that we have uncovered evidence of plagiarism in the Bible (II) papers.

Matthew and Luke in particular are under investigation. We are convinced that both have copied Mark without citation. Examples such as the "Loaves and Fishes" passages are particularly clear-cut. In Matthew's case, he even seems to have reproduced Mark twice, with changes to minor details.  There are other passages where either Matthew has copied from Luke, or vice-versa. Or possibly both have copied from somebody else, but currently we're not sure Q. I mean, who. Luke also has to learn that simply writing "Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us" at the start of your work does not count as identifying your sources according to the Harvard standard.

Matthew and Paul also have been guilty of some lax citation. Matthew, in particular, has on at least one occasion quoted the wrong Prophet. And in one passage he actually gives a quotation with no source - either in the text, or as far as we can tell, in reality. Whereas Paul really has to learn that referring to "one of their prophets" is hardly accurate identification of sources. Although we have also reported Paul for that passage under suspicion of racism.

John, on the other hand, is to be applauded for an imaginative and, as far as we can tell, un-plagiarised submission. A suspicion that he may have "borrowed" material from the Greek Philosophy course has not been proven.

The author of the essay Hebrews, however, has particularly failed to meet our academic standards. Firstly because of the comment "he has said somewhere" - no publication, no page, no publisher - nothing. And secondly because he (or she) has not even bothered putting a name on the paper. Since we can't find anything else with his name on it, we're guessing that the author may be Apollos. 

2 comments :

  1. Right on, Sister / Mother / Venerable One.

    Good thing that none of those writers tried to get an academic degree, huh? Let alone try to become a government minister later.

    Which version has 'loaves and fishe', by the way?

    And as to racism, try Romans 1:14.

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  2. Good spot, Holger, now corrected. You could do that kind of a thing for a living, you know!

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