Verbum
Editor’s note: Andrew Curtis wrote this shortly before moving on to other pursuits. While no longer a Verbum employee, he remains an enthusiastic Verbum user.
This is the third in a series on how Verbum employees use the software in their daily lives and studies.
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Andrew Curtis, former production manager, Content Innovation Team
Verbum member since 2015
Base packages: Verbum 8 Gold
What is your favorite thing to do with Verbum?
My favorite thing to do in Verbum is to read Scripture and use the digital enrichment of the text (lemma and morphology tagging and datasets like Biblical Word Senses) as a jumping-off point for exploring the original-language text and establishing connections between concepts and themes across the New and Old Testaments.
Usually, when I’m doing a studious reading of Scripture, I have three to five different Bibles open (with interlinear display), along with a couple of favorite commentaries and dictionaries. The Bibles I have open are generally the original-language text, the Vulgate, and two or three English Bibles of different styles: the Douay-Rheims, KJV, RSVCE, and the Lexham English Bible.
What else do you love to use Verbum for?
Beyond studying Scripture directly, I like doing a broader reading of the Church Fathers, theology, and classical texts in Verbum. The combination of Verbum’s built-in tools (like Notes, Atlas, Media, and Factbook) with a big library of primary and secondary literature is a huge boon to anyone who wants to do a comparative study of these things or simply be able to search and jump between texts quickly.
For example, when I’m reading a scriptural commentary or a work of classical literature, it’s hugely helpful to be able to add my notes, look up places on maps or in the visual media library, or look at a timeline to place historical events in context—all without leaving the Verbum platform.
Also, thanks to hyperlinked references, I love being able to click on citations in whatever I’m reading (say a commentary, or the Catechism, or St. Thomas) and open the cited works like the Bible, Church Fathers, Josephus, or classical Greek and Roman authors, right from my Verbum library.
Favorite Verbum resource
Hard question! Probably the Lexham Hebrew-English Interlinear Bible followed closely by St. Thomas’ Summa Theologica in Latin and English. Both are great resources to have, and their integration with Verbum’s library and tools is fantastic.
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How do you like to use Verbum? Share your favorite tools and resources in the comments below.
