Jesus Christ’s Speeches in Maria Valtorta’s Mystical Writings: Setting, Topics, Duration and Deep-Language Mathematical Analysis

Abstract

We have studied Jesus Christ’s speeches contained in The Gospel as revealed to me by Maria Valtorta to assess: (i) similarities and differences of the speeches delivered to diverse audiences, through deep-language statistics; (ii) duration of the speeches delivered in different occasions; (iii) whether the setting of the speeches is realistic. Mathematically, the speeches can be divided into two sets: (a) two apparently well-planned and coordinated series of speeches delivered at “Clear Water” and at the Horns of Hattin (Sermon of the Mountain); (b) extempore speeches delivered in many localities (parables, speeches to people or to disciples, in Synagogues, at the Temple). By converting sequences of words into intervals, through a suitable reading/speaking speed, the speeches’ durations were found to be realistic. The setting of the speeches allows the assessment of the likelihood of the places and occasions for delivering them. Maria Valtorta wrote extraordinary speeches that she attributed to the alleged Jesus of Nazareth. In addition to their theological and doctrinal contents (whose study is far beyond the scope of this paper), the speeches are so realistic in whatever mathematical parameter, or setting, we study them, that she is either a great literary author, or—as she claims—an attentive “eyewitness” of what she reports.

1. Introduction

The Italian mystic Maria Valtorta (1897–1961) in her main literary work, in 10 volumes, entitled The Gospel as revealed to me—referred to as the EMV in the following—describes landscapes, environments, people, events, with rare vivacity, and delineates characters and narrative situations with introspective skill [1]. The literary work is very rich in environmental narrative elements, customs, rites, and cultural aspects of the Jewish and Greco-Roman world of the time when Jesus of Nazareth lived.

In our previous work on her literary writings [2,3], we have found striking mathematical differences in fundamental and consciously uncontrollable deep-language indices, curiously anticipated by the alleged Jesus of Nazareth to Maria Valtorta — in the following, we drop the qualifier “alleged”, although we always mean it throughout the paper. It is not our duty, or task, to declare or establish that her “visions” were true, because this is beyond the realms of science—: “I have planned to alternate your contemplations and My consequent clarifications, with true and proper dictations, to comfort you and your spirit, granting you the beatitude of seeing, and also because in this way the difference in style between your composing and Mine will be obvious” (44.8). In the following, the first number (44) gives the Chapter of the EMV, the second number (8) gives its subdivision. All references are to the original Italian EMV published by Centro Editoriale Valtortiano (CEV) [1]. The English translation of the Italian original, when necessary, is taken from the English edition of the EMV, also published by CEV.

In this paper we analyze, mathematically, with great detail, the many speeches that, according to Maria Valtorta, Jesus pronounced on many occasions and directed to different audiences: friends, disciples, parables and extempore speeches — when referring to Jesus, with the term “speech” we refer to any text considered below, be it a parable, a sermon, etc. — to people, sermons in Synagogues, speeches at the Temple in Jerusalem, two well-organized and coherent series of sermons at a locality named Clear Water, Jordan River Valley, and at a locality that Maria Valtorta describes in great detail and looks very like the Horns of Hattin (Galilee). Some of the content in the latter series of speeches is today reported in the universally known Sermon of the Mountain (Matthew 5), although the “Sermon” reported in the EMV lasted a week, not a single day.

We study Jesus’ speeches mathematically to achieve three main goals: (i) To assess similarities and differences of the speeches delivered to diverse audiences, through deep-language statistics [4], previously studied for a large sample of speeches but without distinguishing audiences [3]; (ii) to estimate speech duration, i.e., to assess for how long the Jesus narrated by Maria Valtorta speaks on different occasions, by using a suitable reading speed to convert a sequence of words into an interval; (iii) to assess whether the setting of the speeches is realistic.

The results of the deep-language study provide interesting and useful information on the readability/listening index, and on the short-term memory capacity of the audience, as discussed in [4].

The results of the time conversion give clues to assess whether the duration of the speeches reported by Maria Valtorta are realistic, compared to modern examples.

The results on the setting give clues to assess the likelihood of the places and occasions for delivering the speeches.

The justification for assimilating a written text to a spoken text has been established only recently [5], after long-lasting research on how the human brain processes information. Human beings have the capacity to communicate and extract meaning both from spoken and written language. Although the sensory processing pathways for listening and reading are distinct, listeners and readers appear to extract very similar information about the meaning of a narrative story heard or read. In other words, the human brain represents semantic information in an amodal form, independently of input modality. Therefore, the speeches of Jesus written by Maria Valtorta produce the same results as if they were read aloud with the same pauses and speaking/reading speed. In other words, reading a text or listening to someone who reads it aloud affects the brain in the same way. Therefore, we are reassured and justified with regard to the meaningfulness of our educated exercise of converting a sequence of words into an interval through a suitable reading speed.

After this Introduction, Section 2 presents the “speaker” Jesus of Nazareth according to Maria Valtorta, Section 3 recalls the deep-language indices and calculates them for the diverse audiences, Section 4 examines Jesus’ extempore speeches, Section 5 studies the two grand series of speeches, Section 6 summarizes the main aspect of the deep-language analysis with a geometrical representation, finally Section 7 discusses the overall results and conclusion. The Appendices report extracts of the EMV to guide the readers in this large literary corpus.

2. The Speaker Jesus of Nazareth According to Maria Valtorta

The EMV reports many of Jesus’ speeches. Jesus himself says why Maria Valtorta receives the alleged visions: “Furthermore, with so many books dealing with Me and which, after so many revisions, changes and fineries have become unreal, I want to give those who believe in Me a vision brought back to the truth of My mortal days (44.8)”.

Before proceeding with the mathematical/statistical analysis, we have to discuss three issues, which are fundamental to converting a sequence of words into an interval: (i) Jesus’ speaking voice and bearing; (ii) distance at which the human voice can be heard intelligibly in realistic settings; (iii) Jesus’ speaking speed.

2.1. Maria Valtorta Describes Jesus’ Voice and Bearing

Maria Valtorta describes Jesus’ voice and bearing several times and accurately (see Appendix A). In synthesis, she observes: “Whether He moves or speaks, He does so calmly, without, however, being sluggish or listless. … Even the way He moves is certainly gentlemanly and majestic. In addition, what about His voice? Well: I have heard Him speak for almost two years, and yet at times I lose the thread of His speech as I become so engrossed in studying His voice. … However, after two years I am not in a position to say precisely what the tone is. I definitely exclude the bass tone and also the light tenor tone. However, I am always doubtful whether it is a powerful tenor voice or a perfect baritone voice with a very wide vocal range. I would say that it is the latter because His voice at times takes bronze-like notes, mellow and so deep, particularly when He speaks to a sinner … And His voice never tires, not even in very long speeches …” (243.2).

From these notes emerges the figure of a young healthy man with a powerful voice and overwhelming arguments, able to keep tens or hundreds of people very quiet for not missing a single word, in any environment.

2.2. How Far a Human Voice Can Be Intelligibly Heard?

In Maria Valtorta’s narrative, Jesus speaks in Synagogues, in homes, in squares, from terraces, at the Temple, from boats near the shore, in the open countryside. How far could His voice be heard intelligibly? Are Maria Valtorta’s settings realistic for the many listeners? Are these settings credible when she describes events, occasions, speeches of the young, strong and tall man called Jesus?

Let us first discuss how far a human speaker can be heard intelligibly (without amplification) in different conditions [6]. A similar exercise was done for Julius Caesar’s battlefield speeches [7] with overall results similar to ours.

The maximum distance ℓ (m) at which the voice is still intelligible depends on the sound power level ($SP{L}_h$, dB) emitted by the speaker. The minimum intelligible $SP{L}_h$, assumed as reference value, is $0$ dB, i.e., 1 in linear units. At the distance $\ell = 0.3$ m, a human speaker with normal voice emits a relative sound pressure level $SP{L}_h = 70$ dB (i.e., ${10}^{\frac{70}{20}} = 3162.3$ times the minimum intelligible $SP{L}_h$); a raised voice $\mathrm{emits} 76$ dB, a very loud voice emits $82$ dB; a shouting voice emits $88$ dB.

The sound pressure level received at larger distances is reduced according to the inverse law (in linear units):

$$SPL(\ell )=\frac{SP{L}_h}{\ell }$$

(1)

Therefore, for every doubling of the distance from the source the sound pressure level decreases with 6 decibels ($20 \times lo{g}_{10}2$). However, besides the intended speaker, listeners hear also the background noise, i.e., any sound produced by sources different of the intended speaker. Moreover, the $SPL$ is further reduced by the atmosphere constituents.

As noted, Jesus speaks both indoors and outdoors; therefore, the environment background noise is produced mainly by humans and animals. Therefore, to a first approximation, we can assume that the noise pressure level $SP{L}_n$ that reaches the listeners is both uniform spatially and of the order of magnitude of the level measured today in the following cases: (i) rural, with no nearby traffic; (ii) suburban, with no nearby traffic, and (iii) urban, with no nearby traffic. In all these cases $SP{L}_n$ can range from 22 to 37 dB, at the reference frequency (this frequency, a component of the human voice, is close to the 800 Hz frequency tone used to asses noise level in the Plain Old Telephone Service; therefore, it is a good reference value for our aim) of 1000 Hz. The spatial uniform linear attenuation (in dB) of the atmosphere is always less than 10 dB for a path length of 1 km, i.e., less than $A = 0.01$ dB for 1 m, in the all frequency range of human voice.

Let us estimate the distance at which a human voice can still be heard intelligibly. It is common experience that we can talk, although with difficulty, with someone even if there is a louder noisy crowd around, because we can “lock on” to the speaker. In other words, we can make a conversation even if the background noise is higher than the “signal”. To be conservative, however, let us assume 0 dB signal-to-noise ratio ($SNR = 0 dB$), i.e., $SPL(\ell ) = SP{L}_n$, at the listener position with maximum and uniform noise level in the area (i.e., all listeners are immersed in the same noise). $SPL(\ell$), in linear units, is thus given by:

$$SPL(\ell )=\frac{SP{L}_h}{\ell }\times {10}^{- \frac{A}{20}\times \ell }$$

(2)

Therefore $SNR(\ell )$ is given by;

$$SNR(\ell )=\frac{SP{L}_h}{SP{L}_n\ell }\times {10}^{- \frac{A}{20}\ell }$$

(3)

By setting $SNR(\ell ) = 1$ in Equation (3), i.e., $SNR(\ell ) = 0$ dB, and expressing all parameters in dB, we can calculate the distance from the equation:

$$20\times lo{g}_{10}\ell +0.01\times \ell =SP{L}_h-SP{L}_n$$

(4)

For the raised voice, $SP{L}_h-SP{L}_n=76-37=39$ dB; therefore, Equation (4) gives $\ell \cong 80$ m. If we consider the intermediate value between raised voice and very loud voice $SP{L}_h=\frac{76+82}{2}=79$ dB, then $SP{L}_h-SP{L}_n=79-37=42$ dB, $\ell =110$ m; for a shouting voice $SP{L}_n=82-37=45$ dB, $\ell =150$ m. At these distances, the $SPL$ is $37$ dB (i.e., equal to the noise level), a value well above the 0 dB level of the intelligible voice.

At the locality known as Clear Water, Jesus speaks during heavy rain pouring in the yard and on the shed. In this case, the background noise is mainly produced by the rain [8,9]. Today, the maximum noise pressure level due to rain—data useful for designing wooden roofs and sheds—is about 55 dB; therefore, with this noise level the maximum distance at which $SNR(\ell )=0$ dB is given by $20\times lo{g}_{10}\ell +0.01\times \ell =79-55=24$ dB (assuming the intermediate value between raised voice and very loud voice); therefore $\ell =16$ m, which is a realistic size (see below Section 5.1) of the alleged “large room crowded with people” (120.1), where on another rainy day he “is speaking in a very loud voice, near the door, so that He may be heard by those in the room and also by those in the shed or on the threshing floor, which is flooded by the rain” (123.2).

In conclusion, Jesus’ voice should have been heard intelligibly and continuously for several minutes at distances of the order of several tens of meters. These distances appear to be realistic for the different settings described: terraces, courtyard, Temple, Synagogues, houses. The number of people potentially hearing Jesus can be very large. For example, if people are seated outdoor in a half circle of 80 m radius from the speaker—i.e., the distance value obtained from Equation (4) for the raised voice—and each person occupies a surface of $1.5\times 1.5=2.25 {\mathrm{m}}^2$, e.g., comfortably seated on the grass, then He could be heard by 4468 persons (e.g., Matthew 14, 15–21 indicates about 5000 men, besides women and children). On the setting at the Horns of Hattin, see Section 5.2, Maria Valtorta writes (170.2‒14): “The people sit on the stones scattered in the little valley between the two crests, but some wait for the sun to dry the grass, wet with dew, so that they may sit down on the earth”. On this occasion, people do not seem to be so packed because there is plenty of room. The surface occupation 2.25 m², therefore, is not the least possible, consequently the size of the audience can be underestimated. In any case, here we are interested in the order of magnitude

2.3. A Reference Speaker and Speech Duration

What might be the speaking speed (in words per minute) of the Jesus narrated by Maria Valtorta? To use a realistic speed for converting a sequence of words into an interval, we must investigate the value of this parameter.

Professional readers of Italian audio books, including the professional reader of the EMV audio books, read approximately 160 words per minute. However, this cannot be the speaking speed of a preacher who speaks to a large audience of listeners of different cultural background and listening capabilities, possibly noisy and inattentive, which very likely do not have a written copy of the speech on which returning to grasp difficult passages. In other words, there is a large difference between the listener of an audio book, who can go back and forth when he has missed some passages because distracted, and the listener of a real-time speaker with no hard copy at hand. To assume a definite and reliable speaking speed, let us refer to a contemporary famous Italian preacher of the Catholic Church, Father Raniero Cantalamessa, a Franciscan Capuchin.

Former Full Professor of History of Ancient Christianity at the Catholic University at Milan, he resigned to become a full-time preacher of the Gospel. In 1980 he was appointed by Pope John Paul II “Preacher to the Papal Household”, a decision confirmed by pope Benedict XVI in 2005 and by pope Francis in 2013. In this position, in Advent and Lent he preaches a weekly sermon in the presence of the Pope, cardinals, bishops, prelates of the Roman Curia and General Superiors of religious Orders.

Father Cantalamessa is a very powerful speaker, but not for his voice, which does not resemble Jesus’ voice either in power, because he uses a microphone, or in timbre, but for the content of his sermons and his naturalness in speaking. The audience has the distinct impression that he is speaking extempore, while, on the contrary, he is mostly reading the sermon. Watched on video recordings, publicly available, the sermon coincides verbatim with that written (http://www.cantalamessa.org/. Last access 10 January 2020). By comparing several written sermons to the corresponding video recordings—which, of course, give also the duration of the sermons—his speaking speed varies between 92 words per minute to 97 words per minute; therefore, we can assume an average speed of about 95 words per minute. This is the speaking speed we adopt, for a first approximation, in our exercise to convert Jesus’ sermons into intervals, assuming that He is as good a speaker as Father Cantalamessa is.

After converting Jesus’ written speeches into spoken speeches, we can compare their duration to that of the speeches delivered today during religious services of diverse Christian Churches. A recent study [10] reports the statistics on nearly 50,000 sermons — the word “sermon” refers to the portion of a religious service in which a preacher offers commentary or guidance through a theological or religious lens [10]. As already noted, in the following, we refer to sermons, homilies, etc., as “speeches” — delivered in three major Christian traditions. For comparing durations, the authors of the report consider the median of the histogram, i.e., the 50-percentile value, namely the value that divides the sample size in half. This statistical index is often used when it is necessary to study random data that contain a small number of unusually large or small values, because they can adversely affect other statistics, such as the average value, as is the case for speech durations.

In summary, the results of this investigation show that Catholic sermons — only those during Mass, which lasts about 45 min, are here included— are the shortest, at a median of just 14 min, compared with 25 min for sermons in mainline Protestant congregations and 39 min in evangelical Protestant congregations. For comparison, the median duration of Father Cantalamessa sermons is 35.0 min (see

Table 1. Total number of words and sentences. Statistics of readability index $G$, number of text characters per word ($C_P$), number of words per sentence ($P_F$), number of punctuation marks per sentence ($M_F$) and number of words per punctuation marks, namely the word interval ($I_P$), all values calculated as discussed in general terms in [4], for all the diverse audiences. For better comparing the texts addressed to diverse audience, standard deviations—reported in the second line—are referred to text blocks of 250 words.

EMV Texts	Words	Sentences	$\mathbf{Readability}\mathbf{Index}\mathit{G}$	$\mathbf{Character}\mathbf{Per}\mathbf{Word}{\mathit{C}}_{\mathit{P}}$	$\mathbf{Words}\mathbf{Per}\mathbf{Sentence}{\mathit{P}}_{\mathit{F}}$	$\mathbf{Interpunctions}\mathbf{Per}\mathbf{Sentence}{\mathit{M}}_{\mathit{F}}$	$\mathbf{Words}\mathbf{Per}\mathbf{Interpunctions}{\mathit{I}}_{\mathit{P}}$
Parables (46)	33,808	2289	64.71	4.46	15.71	2.36	6.63
			8.35	0.21	7.67	0.93	1.23
Synagogues (9)	12,994	759	62.29	4.42	17.56	2.54	6.91
			7.61	0.30	5.96	0.71	1.54
People (50)	67,355	4116	62.97	4.43	17.10	2.51	6.84
			10.47	0.29	8.31	1.11	1.81
Disciples (21)	39,777	2521	63.70	4.43	16.30	2.43	6.72
			11.37	0.32	8.42	1.17	1.19
Temple (10)	13,260	702	61.52	4.34	20.02	2.78	7.22
			9.50	0.27	11.00	1.46	1.38
Clear Water (14)	17,082	1279	67.69	4.37	13.59	2.02	6.75
			6.15	0.14	3.90	0.61	0.71
Horns of Hattin (7)	18,951	1259	64.36	4.45	15.44	2.23	6.91
			11.72	0.17	7.58	0.59	2.27
Cantalamessa (21)	68,367	3079	55.15	4.74	22.38	3.14	7.22
			7.48	0.45	7.31	1.65	2.63

below).

3. Deep-Language Indices

To study Jesus’ speeches mathematically, we consider the deep-language indices defined and discussed in [4], and already calculated for Maria Valtorta’s original Italian writings [3]:

(a)

Readability index G

(b)

Words per sentence, P_F

(c)

Characters per word, C_P

(d)

Words between two successive interpunctions, referred to as the word interval, I_P

(e)

Interpunctions per sentence, M_F.

These parameters are peculiar to a writer’s style, or to a particular text.

The number of words per interpunction, $I_P$, referred to as the word interval, is an interesting parameter because it is linked, empirically, to Miller’s $7\mp 2$ Law [11], and therefore to the capacity of the short-term memory required to the readers, with appropriate cultural background, to read (or to listen to, in our exercise) a text more easily [4].

The statistical study of these linguistic parameters, not consciously controllable by Maria Valtorta (or by any other person, unless the writer is aware of them), gives interesting data that are very useful for establishing, objectively, similarities and differences in the speeches addressed to diverse audiences, especially when the texts are represented geometrically, as in [3,4,12].

Speech durations can be estimated as discussed in Section 2, namely by assuming a fixed (on the average) reading/speaking speed of 95 words per minute. According to Cantalamessa’ speeches, this speed can change by about $\pm 3\%$.

Notice, however, that these values are correct only if the pauses that two different speakers make during the speech are the same for both. To better estimate speaking speed and speech duration, we should also consider the different pause rate of a speaker, for the same total number of words, i.e., for how long he pauses in pronouncing a fixed number of words. We need not to know the pause rate, however, because this rate, and therefore the short intervals introduced by pausing, should be proportional to the number of words per interpunctions, namely the word interval $I_P$. Therefore, if for a fixed number of total words this index is smaller for speaker A compared to speaker B, then the speaking speed of speaker A must be slower than that of speaker B, because speaker A adds more pauses than speaker B with a longer word interval. In other words, a more reliable speaking speed can be obtained by scaling a reference speaking speed with the ratio of the word intervals, as we show in the next Section.

4. Jesus’ Extempore Speeches

First, we study the extempore speeches delivered in Synagogues, in villages of Palestine, to the disciples, at the Temple. These speeches are triggered by situations of the moment while, on the contrary, the series of speeches delivered at Clear Water and at the Horns of Hattin, to which we dedicate specific sections below, are obviously planned because they follow definite teaching/preaching patterns, namely the Ten Commandments at Clear Water and the fundamental ethical Carta Magna of Christianity, including the famous speech on “Beatitudes”, at the Horns of Hattin.

In the Tables reported in Appendix B, we briefly summarize localities, dates and topic of the speeches. Although these Tables are large, we think that the reader can be enriched in going through them because he can better grasp the realistic settings, the geography and the extreme richness of the arguments touched by the Jesus narrated by Maria Valtorta.

In our analysis, we have considered only the portion of the text that can be considered, practically, a continuous speech. Of course, Maria Valtorta describes and narrates the full event, in which the speech is embedded, with many more details. Therefore, if we would like to estimate the total time of the event, we would surely find it much longer than the speech embedded, because of the many other facts occurred in the same narrative occasion, both before and after the speech.

Table A1. Date, locality, a brief mention of the topic and setting of the speeches delivered in Synagogues (8 episodes).

EMV Chapter and EMV Date	Locality	Setting
49.6; 30 March 31	Capernaum. The time of Redemption has come.	Jesus goes into a square room with the usual display of triangular lamps and lecterns with rolls of parchment.
59.4; 19 May 31	Capernaum. Who came to sanctify you, has risen.	I see the synagogue of Capernaum. It is already crowded with people waiting … it is almost evening.
94.7–9; 22 July–6 Aug 31	Capernaum. Today a woman, a guilty woman of Israel, punished by God for her sins, received mercy on account of her repentance. I said: mercy.	Jesus comes out of the house of Peter’s mother-in-law … Jesus, Who is … sitting in Peter’s boat, is immediately surrounded by people ….
213.2–3; 11 May–17 May 32	Kerioth. Beginning of the Apostles’ mission.	In the town of My dearest disciple [Judas of Kerioth] ….
246.1–10 19 July 32	Nazareth. It is not necessary. The days of Abimelech are very remote. I will apply the old apologue to the present time.	We are once again in the synagogue at Nazareth, but on a Sabbath.
447.1–3; August 33	Capernaum. He who wants to be My disciple must imitate Me. I tolerate and I forgive. I am meek, humble and peaceful.	It is the Sabbath. I think it is, because I see people gathered in the synagogue.
534.3–4 534.7–8; 4 December 33	Jerusalem, Synagogue of Roman Freedmen. Because he who believes in Me, lives. The true life is not lived by the body in these few days. The true life is achieved believing in and following the Way, the Truth, the Life...	The synagogue of the Romans is exactly on the other side of the Temple, near the Hippicus tower. People are waiting for Jesus ….
556.5–9; January 34	Ephraim. God wants the Temple of the spirit. He is not satisfied with a Temple of walls and marbles that is devoid of spirits full of love.	I do not notice any difference between the Samaritan place of prayer and those I have seen in other regions. … If anything, the rolls are much fewer here than in the other synagogues.

reports the locality, a brief mention of the topic and setting of the speeches delivered in Synagogues, most of them in Capernaum. The date of the day (or the month) in which the alleged speech occurred, indicated in the left-most column with the EMV chapter coordinates, is an estimate determined by the second Author in several works [13,14,15,16,17,18,19]. The setting, the complete text and the topic, only briefly outlined here, are extremely detailed in the EMV, so that, as already observed in [2], Maria Valtorta seems to be an eyewitness.

The mathematical analysis of the speeches listed in the Tables of Appendix B, give the averages of deep-language indices $G$, $C_P,$ $P_F$, $M_F$ and $I_P$, reported in Table 1. All values have been calculated as discussed in general terms in [4]. Table 1 includes also the EMV parables, whose statistics are given in [3], and the statistics on Cantalamessa’s sermons.

Table 2. Statistics of speech duration (in minutes). All values can change by approximately ±3%, because of the Cantalamessa’s speaking speed range.

EMV Texts	Total Time	Average Duration (Standard Deviation)	Median Duration	$\mathbf{Scaling}\mathbf{Factor}{\mathit{I}}_{\mathit{P}\mathit{C}}/{\mathit{I}}_{\mathit{P}}$	Median Duration Scaled	Min-Max
Parables (46)	355.9	7.7 (4.4)	6.9	1.09	7.5	1.8–18.9
Synagogues (9)	136.8	15.2 (10.4)	10.0	1.04	10.4	6.4–33.2
People (50)	709.0	14.2 (8.5)	12.2	1.06	12.9	4.9–56.0
Disciples (21)	418.7	19.9 (11.9)	15.6	1.07	16.7	8.5–46.7
Temple (10)	139.6	14.0 (8.4)	12.8	1.00	12.8	5.2–32.1
Clear Water (14)	179.8	12.8 (6.0)	11.7	1.07	12.5	5.4–26.0
Horns of Hattin (7)	199.5	28.5 (10.7)	26.8	1.04	27.9	12.0–43.9
Cantalamessa (21)	719.7	34.3 (11.6)	35.0	-	-	16.8–69.3

reports the statistics of speech duration, including the parables, here not explicitly listed because of brevity, whose deep-language statistics, however, are reported in [3].

We can estimate a lower limit to the speaking speed by comparing Cantalamessa word interval $I_{PC}=7.22$ with that found in the EMV speeches, as anticipated in Section 3. For example, for the Synagogue speeches $I_P=6.91$ therefore a more precise speaking speed of Jesus talking in Synagogues would be $95\times 6.91/7.22=90.9$ words per minute. Consequently, the duration of these speeches would increase by the factor $7.22/6.91=1.04$, i.e., by 4%. Table 2 shows how much this correction affects the median. We can notice that only for the speeches at the Temple, curiously, Cantalamessa’s speaking speed is correct because the two word intervals are identical to the second decimal digit (Table 1).

5. The Grand Series of Speeches

Besides the many extempore speeches and parables recalled in Section 4, the EMV reports two distinct series of speeches whose audience Maria Valtora describes in this way (174): “And the crowds throng incessantly. They come up from all directions: old, healthy, sick, children and young couples who wish to start their married life with the blessing of God’s word. There are beggars and wealthy …”.

Most of the Christian catechism can be found in these two series of speeches, whose magnificence is undoubtable. The first occurs in November of the year 31, in a locality that Maria Valtorta hears to be referred to as the Clear Water (Acqua speciosa in the original Italian), in a small outbuilding of a farm belonging to Lazarus, in the Jordan River Valley at about the same latitude of Ephraim (see [20] for the map of the Palestine narrated in the EMV). The second series, a small part of which is today traceable in Matthew 5, is known as the Speech of the Mountain, which according to Maria Valtorta occurred at the Horns of Hattin, Galilee.

5.1. At the “Clear Water”: Ten and Not One More

This series of speeches is intended to comment on the Law, namely the Ten Commandments.

Maria Valtorta herself presents the small outbuilding where Jesus delivers his first series of speeches to a growing number of people (118.1) (see Appendix C). A few years later, she guides an artist to draw what she has “seen”, namely the drawing here shown in Figure 1 ([21], p. 204). The dimensions reported in red have been estimated from the dimensions of the shed, $5\mathrm{m}\times 10\mathrm{m}$, explicitly indicated in a draft of the outbuilding reported in the same page.

On Day 5 (

Table 3. Date, topic and setting of the speeches delivered at the Clear Water (14 episodes).

EMV	Topic	Setting
118.6–7 Day 1	Life and death.	“Are You speaking today?” asks James of Zebedee. “Yes, between the sixth and the ninth hour ….” He speaks slowly to about twenty people sitting on the ground or leaning against the trunks, in the warmth of a faint November sunshine. “Go. Every day, at this time, I will speak to you of the eternal truth ….”
119.4–6 Day 2	I am the Lord Your God.	The people is at least doubled since yesterday...The day is cold but clear.
120.1–6 Day 3	You shall have no gods in My Presence.	The crowd, over a hundred people, breaks the spell after some time.
121.6–8 Day 4	You shall not take My Name in vain.	All the disciples are in utter confusion …. They speak and cast sidelong glances outside in all directions …. Jesus is not there. At last they make up their minds about what is worrying them and Peter says to John: Go and look for the Master. He is in the wood near the river ….
122.10–12 Day 5	Honour Your Father and Your Mother.	There must be at least three hundred people. The days are short. The shed is crowded with people camping there. The nights are damp and cold.
123.3–5 Day 6	You Shall Not Fornicate.	Jesus is standing on a kind of platform made with boards in one of the large rooms ….
124 Day 7	No speech.	It is such an awful day that there is not even one pilgrim. It is raining in torrents and the threshing floor is a pool on which dry leaves are floating.
125.2–4 Day 8	Observe Holy Days	The weather is not so dreadful although it is still raining, and people can come to the Master.
126.1–9 Day 9	You Shall Not Kill.	Jesus, standing on the rough platform, is so imposing as to be frightening. With His right arm stretched out towards the door, His eyes like two blue flames ….
127.6–7 Day 10	Do Not Put the Lord Your God to the Test.	It is a very clear winter day: sunshine, wind and a clear sky, all blue, without the least trace of a cloud.
128.3–4 Day 11	You Shall Not Covet Your Neighbor’s Wife.	Jesus passes through the middle of a very large crowd and they call Him from all directions. The clear calm day has brought a great many people.
129.4–5 Day 12	He Cures the Mad Roman and Speaks to the Romans.	Today Jesus is with the nine remaining disciples, as the other three have left for Jerusalem. A real baptism of penance, owing to the bitterly cold wind!
130.5–6 Day 13	You Shall Not Bear False Witness.	How many people! Exclaims Matthew.
131.1–6 Day 14	You Shall Not Covet What Belongs to Your Neighbour.	In addition, fortunately, it all comes to an end, because I [Maria Valtorta] am definitely not fit to go on, as I have been suffering from a heart attack these last three hours and it has dazzled also my sight.
132.1–5 Day 15	Ten and not one more.	The conclusion of Jesus’ speech has been overwhelming. His eyes were shining in His bright face and His smile and voice were of a gentleness never known before. The people are almost fascinated and they do not move until He repeats: “Go. Peace be with you”.

), Maria Valtorta notes “There must be at least three hundred people”. Is this estimate realistic for the setting at Clear Water? If we suppose that each person occupies at most $1{\mathrm{m}}^2$, the space would be $300{\mathrm{m}}^2$, a surface size well below the capacity of the courtyard and shed depicted in Figure 1. Notice that the required area per person inside lecture rooms, cinemas, concert halls, theaters, etc. is about 0.6 m². This value is used to calculate human sensible and latent heat load (www.engineeringtoolbox.com/number-persons-buildings-d_118.html, last access 10 January 2020). Therefore, 1 m² is a reasonable estimate.

Table 3 lists date, topic and setting of the speeches delivered at the Clear Water. The deep-language and speech duration statistics of this series of speeches are reported in Table 1 and Table 2. From the topic of each day, a very clear pattern emerges, namely, the ordered sequence of the Ten Commandments. The speaker has a definite goal in His mind and acts consequently. Notice that nothing resembling the speeches orderly delivered at Clear Water is reported in the Gospels.

5.2. At the Horns of Hattin

Maria Valtorta presents the setting of this series of speeches with many details (Appendix D). Very likely, this is the place universally known, in Christian geography, as “The Mountain” after Jesus’ famous speech on Beatitudes (Matthew 5). In her notebook Maria Valtorta draws what she “sees” (169.1), here shown in Figure 2. In the EMV there many drawings, all done by Maria Valtorta herself. On several occasions she excuses herself for the poor drawings, reminding Father Migliorini, her spiritual guide to whom she addresses some comments, that she was a poor drawer. What appears in the drawing seems to be the countryside and the road that leads to the Horns of Hattin, through the Arbela Gorges, arriving from Lake of Genezareth (Galilee). From the lake, people climb the Arbela Gorges to arrive at the tableland with a village from which the two “horns” can be seen.

The correspondence of Figure 2 with the modern photographs of the area shown in Figure 3 and Figure 4 is very striking. In Figure 3 the horns appear distinctly.

In Figure 4, the scenery is seen from the small valley between the two Horns, where she locates the event: the plateau, the (modern) villages and, beyond the Arbela Gorges, the Lake, as she narrates.

Maria Valtorta recognized the two Horns as the “Mount of Beatitudes” also in another chapter (276.1): “Jesus is on one of the hills on the western coast of the lake. The towns and villages spread on both shores are displayed under His eyes. Directly under the hill are Magdala and Tiberias, the former with its luxurious district strewn with gardens, clearly separated from the poor houses of fishermen, peasants and common people by a little torrent now completely dry; the latter magnificent in every quarter, a town unaware of misery and decay, looking beautiful and fresh in the sunshine before the lake. Between the two towns there are a few but well-kept vegetable-gardens on the short plain, while olive-trees climb the hill conquering it. From this hill-top one can see behind Jesus the saddles of the Mount of Beatitudes, at the foot of which there is the main road, which goes from the Mediterranean Sea to Tiberias. Perhaps Jesus has chosen this place because it is so close to a very busy road, and thus people can come here from many towns both on the lake and in the inland of Galilee, and then go back home in the evening or find hospitality in many of the towns. The climate is also mild because of the height and also because the tall trees on the upper slopes have replaced the olive-trees”. This text was written 10 September 1945, while the Chapters 169–176 (see

Table 4. Date, topic and setting of the speeches delivered at the Horns of Hattin (7 episodes). The dates have been estimated by the second Author.

EMV Chapter and EMV Date	Topic	Setting
169.3‒9 Sunday 2 March 32	To the apostles. You are the Salt of the earth.	“You know, there are many people”. “We were embarrassed, there are some scribes and even some of Gamaliel’s disciples”. “Go down and tell the others to come up, also the known disciples. The people are not to come today. I want to speak to you only”. … “The nights are mild now and we can sleep in the open”.
170.2‒14 Monday 3 March 32	The Grace and the Beatitudes.	The air is clear and rather chilly, but the sun soon softens the fresh mountain air ….
171.1‒6 Tuesday 4 March 32	I will not change one iota of the Law. … However, since I can do everything, I can complete the Law.	It is the same place and the same time. The crowd is larger
172.1‒9 Wednesday 5 March 32	Oath, prayer, fast.	The same place and the same time. … Perhaps the crowd is larger because many people are standing at the beginning of the paths leading to the little valley.
173.2‒7 Thursday 6 March 32	Wealth, alms, faith.	The crowd is growing larger and larger as the days go by. There are men, women, old people, children, rich and poor alike.
174.8‒22 Friday 7 March 32	Choice between Good and Evil. Adultery, divorce.	It is a glorious morning and the air is clearer than usual. Distances seem to be shortened and remote things seem to be seen through a magnifying lens so clear and neat are the least details. …The top of Mount Hermon is like pink alabaster and is kissed by the sun.
176.3‒6 Saturday 8 March 32	God’s Will.	The children … are already prattling, running and jumping in the meadows, getting wet with dew, so that a few blows begin to fly with consequent tears. Then the children run towards Jesus Who caresses them and begins to smile once again as if He reflected their innocent cheerfulness.

) were written from 22 May 1945 to 1 June 1945.

Did Maria Valtorta know about this place before writing, or had she seen photographs of it? She had leafed through a book on the Canticle of Canticles, translated from Hebrew and commented. On 3 November 1943 ([22], p. 443) she writes: “In regard to the book by Ricciotti, from the first moment I leafed through it I did not like it. Well translated as a Canticle. However, the author’s reasoning—it’s really the kind I can no longer assimilate. In addition, with the insistence of a refrain, the Voice whispers to me, “Do not busy yourself with that job. I do not want you to.” It says nothing else. However, seeing that it insists, I resolve to tell you [Father Migliorini] that I will not read any further than I have, and, I confess to you, I do not feel pained about it, for, I repeat, it seems to me that I’m chewing on straw. That is that. I have obeyed”. According to this text Maria Valorta seems to refer to the translation from Hebrew and relative comments of the Book of Canticle of Canticles by father Ricciotti [23], who had recently published Vita di Gesù (Life of Jesus), an essay on the Holy Land and Jesus’ life [24].

Ricciotti was a distinguished Biblical scholar and historian of Christianity. Vita di Gesù has 131 figures, most of them photographs of the still British Mandatory Palestine at the time (1930’s), but none of them shows the Horns of Hattin. The alleged Mountain of the Beatitudes is shown in the photographs reproduced in Figure 5: a low hill (150 m height) near Tabgha and very near Lake of Genezareth, 3 km from Capernaum. Nothing that resembles the Horns of Hattin. Notice that the location where Jesus preached the “Sermon of the Mount” (Matthew 5) is still debated. The more accepted location is the Mount of Beatitudes, i.e., the one shown in Ricciotti’s book. However, some scholars (e.g., [25] p. 240) believe the correct location is the Horns of Hattin. Although it is not known whether Maria Valtorta had also “leafed” through this book, the essay had a large diffusion and the Mount of Beatitudes there described was the most accepted locality for this famous Sermon.

Moreover, she refused offers of a free television set because, she said [26], they could broadcast images of Palestine and thus someone could then say that she had been inspired by what was seen on television.

As recalled, in the 1940s the Mount of Beatitudes was located very near the Lake, as in [24], although medieval Latin sources, starting from Brocardus (1283), indicated its location at the Horns of Hattin [27]. Maria Valtorta’s description, therefore, coincides with this ancient tradition, not with the most accepted geographical indication of her time. As we have noted, she does not indicate any name for it. This finding very likely implies that she did not know this ancient tradition.

In conclusion, according to the EMV narratives, the Horns of Hattin is the locality where the “Speech of the Mountain” was delivered, but not in one day but actually in seven days, in the month of March of the year 32, from Sunday 2 to Saturday 8. The seven speeches report the fundamental Ethics of Christianity, including the famous “Beatitudes” (Matthew, 5), enunciated on Monday.

Table 4 reports, for each day, only some brief notes of this very well-organized series of speeches, whose details and full texts can be read in the indicated chapters of the EMV. In contrast to the short speeches at Clear Water, where the Ten Commandments were the theme, the grand and long speeches at the Horns of Hattin, as we can understand even from the brief texts of Table 4, are the novel foundation of the Christian Ethics.

From the point of view of communication efficacy, it is very interesting to underline how the Beatitudes are presented: in the first part of the speech Jesus summarizes, in a list, eight Beatitudes with 10 to 25 words (all data refer to the Italian original texts). After this “outline”, He returns to each Beatitude and illustrates it with many more words, up to 650. The communication of the character Jesus, in the Valtorta’s writings, is very effective because He first gives the audience the chance to memorize the list of the Beatitudes (which is the only text reported in Matthew 5), and only later He illustrates each of them fully. This way of delivering an argument with many subpoints is effective because the speaker takes care of the short‒term memory capacity of the listeners [4].

In brief, at the Horns of Hattin, Jesus delivers seven speeches for a total time 3.3 h, with an estimated median duration $27~28$ min, a realistic duration close to the median duration (35 min) of Cantalamessa sermons (Table 2).

6. Geometrical Representation of Deep-Languages Statistics

A useful graphical tool for comparing different literary texts is the vector representation discussed in [4], and used with Maria Valtorta’s writings [3] and New Testament Greek texts [12], obtained by considering the following six vectors of components — the choice of which parameter represents the component x or y is not important. Once the choice is made, the numerical results will depend on it, but not the relative comparisons and general conclusions— $x$ and $y:$ $\overrightarrow{R_1}=(C_P, P_F$), $\overrightarrow{R_2}=(M_F, P_F$), $\overrightarrow{R_3}=(I_P,P_F$), $\overrightarrow{R_4}=(C_P, M_F$), $\overrightarrow{R_5}=(I_P, M_F$), $\overrightarrow{R_6 } =(I_P, C_P$) and their resulting vector of coordinates, $x$ and $y$— from vector analysis, the two components of a vector are given by $x={\displaystyle \sum }_{k=1}^6{x}_k$, $y={\displaystyle \sum }_{k=1}^6{y}_k$ The magnitude is given by the Euclidean (Pythagorean) distance $R=\sqrt{x^2+y^2}$, whose end point is reported in Figure 6 and Figure 7—, given by:

$$\overrightarrow{R}={\displaystyle \sum }_{k=1}^6\overrightarrow{R_k}$$

(5)

In addition to the evidence already published, another example that this geometrical tool can reveal significant differences, and help in deciding the authorship of a text, is illustrated with a new example from I Quaderni 1945–1950 [28]. In the last 68 pages of this book, Maria Valtorta writes an unfinished comment on the New Testament Book of Revelation. Contrarily to all other writings, she does not say who is “dictating” these comments. From the indices reported in

Table 5. Statistics of readability index $G$, number of text characters per word ($C_P$), number of words per sentence ($P_F$), number of punctuation marks per sentence ($M_F$) and number of words per punctuation marks, namely the word interval ($I_P$), all values calculated as discussed in general terms in [4], for the Comments to Revelation [28].

Words	Sentences	$\mathbf{Readability}\mathbf{Index}\mathit{G}$	$\mathbf{Characters}\mathbf{Per}\mathbf{Word}{\mathit{C}}_{\mathit{P}}$	$\mathbf{Words}\mathbf{Per}\mathbf{Sentence}{\mathit{P}}_{\mathit{F}}$	$\mathbf{Interpunctions}\mathbf{Per}\mathbf{Sentence}{\mathit{M}}_{\mathit{F}}$	$\mathbf{Words}\mathbf{Per}\mathbf{Interpunctions}{\mathit{I}}_{\mathit{P}}$
27656	979	52.91	46.71	30.02	4.35	6.91

, in Figure 3 we show the end points of the vectors drawn in Figure 13 of [3] together with the new point given by Table 5. It clearly appears that the “Author” of these Comments is very likely the same “Author” of the Lezioni sull’Epistola di Paolo ai Romani [29], namely, the Holy Spirit, according to Maria Valtorta.

Let us return to Jesus’ speeches. From the averages of Table 1, Figure 4 shows the coordinates of the vectors end points concerning the diverse speeches. From Figure 4 we can notice, very clearly, that the data concerning the speeches at Clear Water and at the Horns of Hattin are displaced from the other speeches. They seem to belong to another set of data. This striking difference, which can be appreciated in detail through the deep-space parameters listed in Table 1, especially the number of words per sentence $P_F,$ underlines the peculiarity of the coordinated series of speeches, compared to the extempore speeches. Delivered to a large audience made of people of different cultural, economic and social status, these coordinated speeches had to be carefully prepared. They represent, in organized and concentrated form, the fundamentals of Jesus’ teaching, according to the EMV.

7. Discussion and Conclusions

We have studied Jesus’ speeches written in the EMV to achieve three main goals: (i) to assess similarities and differences of the speeches delivered to diverse audiences, through deep-language statistics; (ii) to assess for how long the Jesus narrated by Maria Valtorta speaks in different occasions; (iii) to assess whether the setting of the speeches is realistic.

The deep-language statistics (Table 1) have provided interesting and useful information on the readability/listening index and on the short-term memory capacity of the audience. In [3,4,12] we showed that the deep-language indices can effectively be used to study literary texts. The pursuing of trying different mathematical analyses for specific purposes is still underway [30].

According to the vector representation in Figure 7, Jesus’ speeches can be clearly divided in two sets: (a) the two coordinated series of speeches delivered at Clear Water and at the Horns of Hattin; (b) the extempore speeches delivered in many localities, namely the parables, the speeches to people or to the disciples, in Synagogues, at the Temple.

The speeches at Clear Water and at the Horns of Hattin are supposedly delivered to a large audience made of people of different cultural, economic and social status. They seem to be carefully prepared and represent, in organized and concentrated form, the fundamentals of Jesus’ teaching. On the contrary, the extempore speeches appear to be triggered by situations of the moment. Overall, the speeches at Clear Water are, mathematically, the less difficult (in Figure 7 they are at the left bottom corner), while those at the Temple are the most difficult (Figure 7, right upper corner).

The highest readability index is at Clear Water (67.69), the lowest at the Temple (61.52), in agreement with the geometrical representation of Figure 7. The word interval ranges from 6.63 (Parables) to 7.22 (Temple). Because this parameter seems to be linked to the short-term memory capacity of the readers/listeners, the speeches delivered to diverse audiences require slightly different capacities, the largest for the readers/listeners at the Temple (7.22), or in Synagogues (6.91) and at the Horns of Hattin (6.91).

The time conversion of sequences of words into intervals, through a suitable and reliable reading/speaking speed, has allowed to assess whether the duration of the speeches is realistic, compared to modern examples. The results listed in Table 2 show that the median duration ranges from about 7 min for the Parables, to about 27 min for speeches at the Horns of Hattin. In all other cases, the median ranges between 10 and 15 min. Compared to modern preachers, these durations are very realistic. On the contrary, if the same exercise is done on “speeches” reported in any other literary work, including the New Testament, the durations found are very far from reality. For example, Peter’s speech in Acts 1 would have lasted approximately only 2 minutes.

In particular, it is interesting what emerges from Table 2 about the duration of speeches in a liturgical context, namely at the synagogues, commenting the Scriptures just heard. Curiously, the median duration of about 10 min for homilies is what contemporary homiletical science suggests for catholic priests. Pope Francis, in his first apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, in 2013, recommended the brevity of the homilies. For reasons partially related to what has just been discussed, i.e., to keep alive, at the maximum level, the attention of occasional listeners, the duration of Jesus’ public speeches was never longer than 10-15 min, except when He was “teaching” His specific doctrine at the Horns of Hattin (see Table 2).

The setting of the speeches, always described in great detail in the EMV, has allowed assessing the likelihood of the places and the occasions for delivering the speeches. We have examined in detail the setting for the two series of coordinated speeches, namely at Clear Water and at the Horns of Hattin, and found the setting realistic both for hearing Jesus’ voice intelligibly and for hosting the large crowds described by Maria Valtorta.

In conclusion, Maria Valtorta wrote extraordinary speeches that she attributes to the alleged Jesus of Nazareth. The speeches are so realistic in whatever mathematical parameter or setting we wish to study (as we have done extensively in [3] for all her literary writings), that she is either a great author, because—besides her very effective literary style—the mathematics of her writings extends in the full range of the Italian Literature [3]; or, as she continues to tell us through her vast writings, she seems to be, rather, an “eyewitness” of what she claims she has seen, just an attentive reporter.

There are, of course, many other “dimensions” in her writings well beyond the purpose of this paper and, especially, the expertise of the authors, such as the vast theological and doctrinal contents which should be investigated by experts.

Besides Astronomy and Meteorology, already studied by the authors [2], other scientific disciplines could be involved in further studies of this very large literary corpus, again with the aim of pursuing the likelihood of her many observations. Archaeology, for example, might gain significant insight, and even lead to new discoveries, on the alleged Palestine of Jesus’ historical period, because Maria Valtorta describes towns, buildings, roads, Roman carts, sea ports and ships. Botany might also gain insight from the many descriptions of cultivated fields, woods and trees. Fashion might be studied through the many descriptions of clothing, especially women dresses. Even cosmetics manufacture might be studied through her descriptions of the many flowers cultivated for making perfumes and other cosmetics. According to Maria Valtorta, many different flowers were cultivated in a large farm near Antioch belonging to the alleged Jesus’ intimate friend Lazarus and his sisters Martha and Mary (EMV 323). This could explain why they had in their house in Bethany a very large quantity of “perfumed oil made from genuine aromatic nard” with which Mary anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair filling the house with the fragrance of the oil (John, 12.3) to force Judas the Iscariot to say: “Why was this oil not sold for three hundred days’ wages, and given to the poor?” (John, 12.6). This anecdote is also reported by Maria Valtorta with many more details (EMV 586). The possession of such a large quantity of very expensive perfumed oil—worth almost one year’s wage—is difficult to justify for personal use, but justifiable if stored in the house for trading.

Our works on Maria Valtorta’s writings can be taken as pilot studies in a new field of research in which the writings of other mystics could be studied with the tools we have used. All this interdisciplinary research activity might give further investigation tools to theological commissions interested in evaluating the origin of mystical writings.