Some Initial Thoughts on Logos 5 (Verbum)

I have found it difficult in the past months to give a proper review of Logos 4.  Why? Well, the main reason is that it such a comprehensive and useful tool for Bible study, I really never knew where to begin.  However, just when I felt about ready to post some of my thoughts, Logos 5 (Verbum) was released this past month.  In short, Verbum, which is the Catholic version of Logos 5, is wonderful upgrade in almost every way and I look forward to using it extensively in the coming years.

Again, the question is, where to begin?  I equate the transition from relying on actual physical books, like commentaries, interlinears, and concordances, for most of my Bible study research up until recently to utilizing the tools in Verbum as something akin to learning how to pray the Liturgy of the Hours for the first time.  What do I mean by that?  The Liturgy of the Hours can be, for the newbie, a very confusing prayer book.  There is so much flipping around and at first one may not know which prayers to use at a particular time of the year.  And let's be honest, the introduction and rubric guide at the beginning of the Office is of no real help to someone who is just getting started.  So, I have found that if someone wants to pray the Liturgy of the Hours regularly the best thing for them is to have a priest, religious, or lay person, who is already experienced with praying it, show him how to use it.  Fortunately, someone taught me a number of years back, and I have taught a number of others over the year as well.  Verbum is like that in some ways.  Why?  Well, primarily because it is such a powerful software program that it can be difficult to know where to start.  The video tutorials on the Logos website are certainly helpful, but it really does take some time to get use to vast amount of resources that Verbum has to offer.  (An example of this would be the new Clause Search feature, which you can read about here.)  But what I have found is that just as one becomes more comfortable with praying the Liturgy of the Hours over time, the same things is the case for using Verbum.  If you have never used Bible software, like myself until fairly recently, don't be scared away by it.  Once you become more comfortable with using this software, which I am getting more and more of every day, you will actually have trouble remembering how you did Bible study research in the past.

Let me just say quickly a comment about the amount of Biblical resources you can access on Verbum.  Now that Logos has introduced Verbum, which is specifically for Catholics and contains material not only focusing on Scripture, but also doctrine, liturgy, history, and apologetics, this program is built to be an everyday tool for not only study, but also devotional use.  You not only have various translations, exegetical tools, dictionaries, commentaries, and writings from the Church Fathers, Popes, and Church Councils, but also a fully integrated Catechism of the Catholic Church that is a pleasure to search through.  In the package I received, I also found some additional surprises, like the writings of G.K. Chesterton, Raymond Brown, and the works of noted Catholic Apologist, Dave Armstrong.  And there is so much more!

Including the free Verbum-specific App.  I just downloaded this yesterday, and so far it has been a very nice addition to my I-Phone.  This App syncs with the main platform on my laptop, but it can be downloaded by anyone, even if you don't own any Logos software program.  It comes with a nice selection of free resources, including: The Catholic Lectionary, The Roman Catechism, Pictorial Lives of the Saints, Sources of Catholic Dogma (Denzinger), Thomas a Kempis’ The Imitation of Christ, Newman’s An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, Chesterton’s Orthodoxy, the Douay-Rheims, King James Version, Clementine Vulgate, Novum Testamentum Graece (Tischendorf), The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition, Westcott-Hort Greek New Testament, Lexham English Bible.

In the end, the only real question I have is whether I re-purchase commentaries and other books that I already own in order to utilize them on Verbum?  I am sure that there will be a few that I do, but there is enough already loaded on to Verbum, along with the promise of future releases, that will keep me occupied.  But if you are one who is thinking about making the investment to purchase Verbum, I heartily recommend it.  It will take a little bit of time playing with the many features to feel comfortable with using it, but it is certainly worth the effort and cost.  In the new year, I plan to post occasionally about my experiences using Verbum, so stay tuned.

Thank you, again, to the fine people at Logos for providing me a review copy.

7 Questions: Dr. John Newton of Baronius Press

A special thanks to Dr. John Newton, Editor-in-Chief of Baronius Press, for responding to my questions about their new edition of the Knox Bible.  You can also search the Knox Bible at Bible Gateway. 

1)  First off, thank you for taking the time to answer the following questions.  I wanted to start off with a question about your involvement with Sacred Scripture. How has Scripture played an important role in your spiritual life?  Has it always been that way?

I have grown in my appreciation of the divine text over the years, and two incidents stand out in particular. The first is the advice of my parish priest during my late teens. At the end of a chat with him he advised me to read the Bible, beginning with the Gospel of John, as that described Our Lord’s incarnation and then to go back to the Old Testament and discover not only the prophecies of Jesus, but also the inheritance we share with the Jewish faith.

The second was during a period I spent working with the Sion Community, which is the biggest provider of Home Missions in the UK. At the time they were running a course in praying the Scriptures, which involved reading and reflecting on the Gospel of Mark. When it came to choosing a version of the Bible I went into the library and saw a copy of Monsignor Knox’s translation. It was a version I had heard lots about, but never actually read, so I selected that one. Knox’s description of Jesus in Mark’s Gospel brought him alive to me in a way no other text has done before or since. Knox’s prose conjured up the events so vividly in my mind that it was like seeing the stories for the first time.

2) How long have you been involved with Baronius Press?  Could you talk a little bit about the history and mission of Baronius Press?

Baronius was set up in 2003 by a gentleman I was at university with – Ashley Paver. He had previously worked in Catholic publishing and had a personal vision of seeing the Douay-Rheims Bible available in a format that was worthy of its venerable text. For Ashley that meant digitally re-typesetting it – which was highly novel when all other versions of the Douay available were facsimiles – and using the highest quality materials: leather for the cover; gilt-edged pages; and so forth. It then expanded into publishing classics of spirituality and liturgical books for the extraordinary form of the Mass and Office – and it was as they were expanding in these areas that I first became involved.

I started working with Baronius Press back in early 2006 doing a bit of part-time writing and editing alongside another post and within a few months I had become Editor-in-Chief, Ashley having moved on from that position sometime before.

In all of its publications the goal was to ensure that books were made to the highest quality – and even Baronius’ paperbacks are smyth sewn.

3) This past month, Baronius Press published the Knox Holy Bible, which hasn’t been done in over fifty years.  Could you talk a little bit about the process by which the Knox Bible was produced?  How long of a project was it?  Who were your main collaborators in this project?

The project was quite a lengthy one. To start with we had to find the right edition - as Knox also published a couple of early drafts before it was approved by the hierarchy – and then we had to convert the text from hard copy into digital format. This was perhaps one of the longest tasks; it meant scanning the entire Knox Bible, and then painstakingly checking and correcting any errors. We had a number of people working on this to ensure the accuracy of the text.

 The project took over four years, but not all of this time was spent on the Knox by any means, our small team was working on several other projects at the same time, including our 1961 Breviary which consumed an awful lot of our time.

The Diocese of Westminster was extremely helpful in getting Mons. Knox’s translation back into print, and we were especially grateful that Archbishop Nichols granted a new imprimatur before we went to press.

4) One of the best features of the Knox Bible is its outstanding look and readability of the text, along with the quality production value.  Could you talk a little bit about how Baronius Press went about producing such a beautiful volume?  Also, are there any plans in the future to have the Knox Bible come in a flexible leather edition?  Compact edition?

We have always been keen with any title we do to ensure that it is beautiful and readable.  We still aim to produce books of the very highest quality that befit the texts inside.

I’m not too familiar with the actual binding process – as we contract skilled craftsmen to do that, it’s not something we do ourselves – so I’d hesitate to say too much about that.

At the moment there are no plans to produce the Knox in any other editions, but I’m sure we’ll be looking at how sales go and listening to feedback from our customers.

5) Dr. Scott Hahn wrote the foreword to this volume.  How did this come about? 

We wanted to get a foreword to this volume by a leading biblical scholar. As Dr. Hahn is a convert, as  Mons. Knox was, we thought he would be ideal for the job. He is rather tricky to get hold of, but we knew a close associate of his, who put us in contact with him. He was delighted to be able to contribute this foreword and somehow managed to fit it in with his large number of commitments.

6) In general, is there anything else that you would like to tell my readers about the Knox Bible or Baronius Press?

In my personal opinion the Knox is one of the best translations of the Scriptures. Bringing it back into print has been a bit of a personal quest. When I first floated the idea most people at Baronius thought it was a crazy idea – as we were publishing the Douay-Rheims and they couldn’t see the logic in publishing two translations from the Vulgate. But to give the others their due they did take soundings from other people who worked with us and Robert Asch was so overwhelmingly enthusiastic that they decided that the project might have possibilities after all. So they asked a number of priests around the world, and were surprised to find that everyone they spoke to in the UK and the USA was strongly in favour of bringing the Knox back into print.

We also decided to use the one column layout that was used in early versions of the Knox Bible. This is how the original Rheims New Testament was laid out back in the sixteenth century and so typesetting it this was reflects a very old Catholic practice – as well as making the text easier to read in many people’s opinion.

Enthusiasm for the Knox Bible has been widespread – and the enthusiasm has come from some unexpected quarters, such as Bible Gateway, who we worked with to provide an electronic, searchable form of the text on their website.

7) Finally, do you have a favorite passage or verse from the Knox version of the Bible?

Just one passage or verse? That’s a tricky question. If forced to choose just one I think I’d select Mark 1:19-39 which was the passage that really brought it all to life for me back when I was living with the Sion Community:

As soon as they had left the synagogue, they came into Simon and Andrew’s house; James and John were with them. The mother of Simon’s wife was lying sick there, with a fever, and they made haste to tell him of her; whereupon he went close and took her by the hand, and lifted her up. And all at once the fever left her, and she began ministering to them. And when it was evening and the sun went down, they brought to him all those who were afflicted, and those who were possessed by devils; so that the whole city stood crowding there at the door. And he healed many that were afflicted with diseases of every sort, and cast out many devils; to the devils he would give no leave to speak, because they recognized him. Then, at very early dawn, he left them, and went away to a lonely place, and began praying there. Simon and his companions went in search of him: and when they found him, they told him, All men are looking for thee. And he said to them, Let us go to the next country-towns, so that I can preach there too; it is for this I have come. So he continued to preach in their synagogues, all through Galilee, and cast the devils out.

ICSB: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon

Thanks to an anonymous comment yesterday, it appears that the next volume in the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible that will be released is ICSB: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon.  The release date is set for March 31, 2013.  If this is true, I wonder if this is an indication that Ignatius will just be releasing selected volumes from the OT over the next few years, leading up to the complete ICSB in 2014 or 2015?

The Pope Hates Christmas

The Pope hates Christmas is a fine article from the GetReligion blog about some of the news going around about Pope Benedict's most recent book on the Infancy Narratives.  Equally as ridiculous to some of the news reports on this book is the following headline from a CNN article on this same book: "Pope's Book on Jesus Debunks Christmas Myths"  Right....

Pope Benedict's newest book Jesus of Nazareth: the Infancy Narrative is a wonderful, though short, treatment on Matthew 1-2 and Luke 1-2.  I picked up a copy this past Friday and read it over the weekend.  I hope to provide some of my thoughts in the coming days.  However, take the time to get this book yourself, either in hardcover or via E-book.  It really is a perfect book for Advent.

More Cyber Monday Deals: Saint John's Bible

Finish your set! Start a new set! Give one as a gift! Give both as a gift!

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Go to the Saint John's Bible website to purchase.

Cyber Monday Sale: Little Rock Catholic Study Bible

Little Rock is offering a 50% off sale on their hardcover and paperback editions of the Little Rock Catholic Study Bible today only!

Hardcover Price: $49.95, Sale Price: $24.98

Paperback Price, $39.95, Sale Price: $19.98

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Sunday Knox: Christ the King Edition (Daniel 7:13-14)

"Then I saw in my dream, how one came riding on the clouds of heaven, that was yet a son of man; came to where the Judge sat, crowned with age, and was ushered into his presence. With that, power was given him, and glory, and sovereignty; obey him all must, men of every race and tribe and tongue; such a reign as his lasts for ever, such power as his the ages cannot diminish." - Knox Bible


"As the visions during the night continued, I saw one like a Son of man coming, on the clouds of heaven; when he reached the Ancient One and was presented before him, the one like a Son of man received dominion, glory, and kingship; all peoples, nations, and languages serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not be taken away, his kingship shall not be destroyed." -NAB

"As the visions during the night continued, I saw coming with the clouds of heaven One like a son of man. When he reached the Ancient of Days and was presented before him, He received dominion, splendor, and kingship; all nations, peoples and tongues will serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, his kingship, one that shall not be destroyed." -NABRE