If thefinal form of the text carries information that both exists independ-
ently from the readers’minds and is detached from the author(s) original
intention and historical circumstances, such information can travel across
time and space unchanged as the text is transmitted. Further, as long as the
text continues to be read, the information carried by the text will influence
people’s thoughts and behaviors. It is thus reasonable to think of the text as a
meme, in the sense of being a piece of cultural information that functions as a
replicator. In our discussion of evolution and memes above (in section 2.6), we
used the example of recipes to think about memes. A text such as the New
Testament that is replete with both implicit and explicit instructions for what
people should think and do can be seen as a cultural replicator that causes
behavioral traits in many generations.
As Pyper noted, the Bible has some“viral”qualities: that is, its text contains
elements that help it spread irrespective of its effects on the people transmit-
ting it. According to Pyper, the main viral strategy of the Bible is its claim that
the survival of its people depends on it own survival. However, he also assumes
that the transmission of the Bible actually benefits the people who preserve it
and calls the Bible a“symbiont”(Pyper, 1998, p. 77): preserving the Biblical
tradition benefits both the Bible as a virus and its people as hosts of the virus. It
seems, however, that Pyper jumps to conclusions about the beneficial influ-
ence on the Bible on people’s lives. Chain letters also insist that their text
should be obeyed and transmitted for its reader to strive; yet such instructions
benefit the survival of the meme (letter) rather than that of the people who
pass it on.^2 The reasons behind the long history of transmission of the Bible
could be explained by a variety of factors, including truly epidemiological
ones: as we suggested above, biblical writings contain optimal combinations of
counterintuitive and intuitive elements as well as emotional details that make
them attention grabbing and memorable. If some epidemiological factors
make the text of the Bible successful in cultural transmission, they possibly
show up in other (sacred) texts, as well. Since the Hebrew Bible, the New
Testament, other biblical canons, and the Quran share a great deal of tradition
and material, the parallels in these texts are not necessarily due to epidemi-
ology. Further research could establish whether such features of the biblical
tradition are found in other sacred literature.
As we discussed in the context of food recipes (section 2.6), epidemiological
processes and selective processes at the level of the replicator can be complex
and intertwined. The history of Late Antiquity and the European Middle Ages
presented selective pressures on the transmission of the Bible, which favored
some sacred texts and canons. For example, the change of medium, such as the
transition from scroll to codex and later to printing press, favored the survival
(^2) Pyper (1998, p. 78) mentions the possibility that following a period of quiet co-existence,
symbionts can turn against the host organism at a later point.
Hermeneutical Reflections 217