Verbum 9 Tip 9h: Ancient Literature
Docx files for personal book: Verbum 9 part 1; Verbum 9 part 2; Verbum 9 part 3; Verbum 9 part 4; Verbum 9 part 5; Verbum 9 part 6; Verbum 9 part 7; How to use the Verbum Lectionary and Missal; Verbum 8 tips 1-30; Verbum 8 tips 31-49
Reading lists: Catholic Bible Interpretation
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Bibliographic sections
The next block of Passage Guide sections are bibliographic in nature. They provide you with lists of resources with information on your passage.
- Ancient literature section which includes ancient Near-Eastern material, apostolic fathers, church fathers, Dead Sea scrolls sectarian material, Judaica, Nag Hammadi Codices, New Testament Apocrypha, Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, works of Josephus, works of Philo
- Biblical theologies section which uses a curated list of resources of type Biblical theology
- Catholic topical index which includes sacred scripture, church teaching, liturgy, canon law, ecclesiastical writers
- Collections section (contents are user defined)
- Commentaries section which traditionally uses Bible Commentaries, Study Bibles, and newer library resource types that have a Bible index.
- Confessional documents section which uses a curated list of resources
- Courses section
- Journals section which depends upon {Label Journal Article}
- Liturgy section which uses a curated list of resources including type: service book
- Personal letter section which depends upon {Label Personal Letter}
- Sermons section which depends upon {Label Sermon}
- System theologies section which uses a curated list of resources
The language and linguistics resources are held for a separate block.
Ancient Literature
From Verbum Help:[quote]
Ancient Literature Section
The Ancient Literature section appears in the Passage Guide and Exegetical Guide. Given a biblical passage, it returns related texts in the literature that surrounds the Bible: Ancient near-eastern, Hellenistic, and other Jewish Source materials, among others.
• The cross references are grouped by type: Citation, Quotation, Allusion, Echo, Topical, Historical, Lexical, or Phrase.
• Links to cross references in resources the user does not own will open the Power Lookup tool listing which resources contain those references.
Available Literature Groups
The Ancient Literature section provides references to several groups of literature, including:
• Ancient Near-Eastern Material
• Apostolic Fathers
• Church Fathers
• Dead Sea Scrolls (Sectarian Materials)
• Judaica (Talmuds, Mishnah, Mekhilta)
• Old Testament Pseudepigrapha
• Nag Hammadi Codices
• New Testament Apocrypha
• Works of Josephus
• Works of Philo
Types of References
Ancient literature will often refer to canonical texts or discuss topics also addressed within the canon. Knowing the reasons behind these references is perhaps as important as the reference itself.
Therefore, in addition to gathering references by group, references have also been classified by shared vocabulary. Relationships include:
• Citation: An explicit reference to scripture with a citation formula (e.g. “It is written,” or “the Lord says,” or “the prophet says,” or something along those lines).
• Quotation: A direct reference to scripture, largely matching the verbatim wording of the canonical source but without a quotation formula.
• Allusion: An indirect but intentional reference to scripture, that was likely intended to invoke memory of the scripture.
• Echo: A verbal parallel evokes or recalls scripture for the reader, but likely without authorial intention to reproduce exact words.
• Historical: A specific referent is in common with scripture.
• Topical: A general referent in common with scripture, but not exactly the same word or phrase.
• Lexical: A word or phrase in common that could be useful for lexical studies, but no intertextual reference intended.
Learn More
• Products that include this feature[1]
Prerequisite reading: Brannan, Rick. Ancient Literature Documentation. Bellingham, WA: Faithlife, 2015.
Resources included: A list of the resources include is available in the documentation linked to above. Should you find resources missing that should be added, request their addition at Logos Resource Updates | Faithlife The tagging is a mix of manual and automated, again documented in the afore mentioned documentation. Errors in tagging may be reported in Activity - Lexham Ancient Literature Dataset - Faithlife which is the intended platform for discussions of this specific dataset.
Section heading bar
The section heading bar begins with an expand/collapse section arrowhead, the section title, “empty” space where a click toggles the section expand/collapse state and a right-click displays the section heading bar menu.
While the are no new functions on the menu, the Passage List is used for non-Biblical references.
This confirms that the links are datatype/milestone links which will choose the highest priority resource in our library that contains the milestone.
The remainder of the section heading bar contains the help icon (preview on mouse over, opens Verbum Help on click), and the option to remove the section from the guide.
Contents
Sequence - type
The first group heading in Ancient Literature offers two views: type and work. The section in Type sequence (note the light orange line indicating that type is active).
It is important to understand these relationship types as they appear in several sections. From Ancient Literature Documentation:[quote]
Relationships include:
• Citation: An explicit reference to scripture with a citation formula (e.g. “It is written,” or “the Lord says,” or “the prophet says,” or something along those lines).
• Quotation: A direct reference to scripture, largely matching the verbatim wording of the canonical source but without a quotation formula.
• Allusion: An indirect but intentional reference to scripture, but likely intended to invoke memory of the scripture.
• Echo: A verbal parallel evokes or recalls a scripture (or series of scriptures) to the reader, but likely without authorial intention to reproduce exact words.
• Historical: A specific referent is in common with scripture.
• Topical: A general referent in common with scripture, but not exactly the same word or phrase.
• Lexical: A word or phrase in common that could be useful for lexical studies, but no intertextual reference intended.
This labeling/qualifying of references allows users to focus on information they are interested in. If intertexuality is the interest, labels like “Historical”, “Topical”, and “Lexical” can be safely ignored. If word studies, then the “Lexical” type can be the focus of study.[2]
Sequence - work
The second option presents the section in Works (corpus) sequence (note the light orange line indicating that work is active).
Again, this division of corpora is used elsewhere and must be understood in order to use Verbum effectively. From Ancient Literature Documentation:[quote]
Available Corpora
Logos has access to many different sources that may be of interest. These sources have been gathered in groups, typically representative of a corpus or genre.
• Ancient Near-Eastern Material (Ugaritic material, Context of Scripture, Ancient Near-Eastern Texts, Amarna Letters, etc.)
• Apostolic Fathers
• Church Fathers
• Dead Sea Scrolls (Sectarian Material)
• Judaica (Babylonian Talmud, Jerusalem Talmud, Mishnah, Mekhilta, etc.)
• Old Testament Pseudepigrapha
• Nag Hammadi Codices
• New Testament Apocrypha
• Works of Josephus
• Works of Philo[3]
Detail
Regardless of the sort sequence, the detail lines appear in order:
- Author, if known, with all referenced works following in wrapped text
- Work title in alphabetic order with all references to the works following in wrapped text
- References to milestone in the work separated by semicolons.
- An optional “more” to see the remaining entries.
Reading an entry
Cyr. Hier., Cat. Lect. 3.6 is:
- from the Church Fathers corpus
- with a relationship to scripture of quotation.
- Author is Saint Cyril of Jerusalem (Cyrillus Hierosolymitanus)
- The work is Catechetical Lectures
- The milestone is Lecture 3 paragraph 6
Practice/experience is the only way to learn to recognize the actual reference of the notation. This illustrates why datatypes are too numerous for it to be practical/useful to provide a complete list.
Interactions on data
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Data element |
Status |
Action |
Response |
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Top level title (sequence) |
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Click arrowhead or title |
Expand/Contract level (1) |
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Detail entry (author, work, reference) i.e., the element(s) between semicolons |
Owned; on device |
Mouse-over |
Show preview of content of reference in top priority resource containing the reference; gutter line showing the full (generic) title of the resource (2) |
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Click |
Open the highest priority resource containing the reference to reference (3) |
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Right-click |
Open Context Menu on the reference (4) |
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Drag-and drop |
Open the highest priority resource containing the reference to reference in the location selected by the user (3) |
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Detail entry (author, work, reference) i.e., the element(s) between semicolons |
not on device |
Mouse-over |
Show gutter line containing the full (generic) title of the resource (6) |
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Click |
Opens Power Lookup with a notice that no resource is found containing this reference (7). |
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Right-click |
Open Context Menu on the reference (8). |
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Drag-and drop |
Opens Power Lookup (at a location of the user’s choosing) with a notice that no resource is found containing this reference (7). |
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More |
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Click |
Display additional entries (5) |
This section shows the curated list without regard to ownership. I hope that hiding resources emulates not owning the resource
(1) Heading expansion/contraction
Before:
After:
(2) Reference preview
Notice the “translation” of the author, work, and reference in the gutter line
(3) Resource open to reference
(4) Context Menu on reference
Note that this context menu has the datatype selected on the left. This provides from Copy reference: search, the datatype <Cyrillus_hierosolymitanus = Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures 3.6> which is used to search for all references to this passage. The simple addition of the milestone {Milestone <Cyrillus_hierosolymitanus = Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures 3.6> } converts it to search for all occurrences of this passage.
(5) More expansion
Before:
After:
(6) Preview of unavailable resource
(7) Notice of resource unavailability
Note you still have access to the datatype: <JosephusLoeb = Wars 3.515>
(8) Context menu on resource not on the device.
Search
One cannot duplicate the results with a search as neither the reference type nor the corpus data is exposed for user searches. However, one can search for additional resources containing the reference. The example on the left is a resource on the device; on the right is a resource not on the device. I did not identify an unowned resource to show the Bookstore option.
Note that the milestone search picks up the apparatus as well as the actual text.
Supplemental materials
None come to mind although Factbook on the author and the work may be of interest.
Author:
Resource:
As the date and preview make clear, the entry is for a particular edition of The Catechetical Lectures not for the generic resource.
[1] Verbum Help (Bellingham, WA: Faithlife, 2018).
[2] Rick Brannan, Ancient Literature Documentation (Bellingham, WA: Faithlife, 2015).
[3] Rick Brannan, Ancient Literature Documentation (Bellingham, WA: Faithlife, 2015).
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."