Study
Study a verse: the Latin, the Hebrew and Greek, the Church
Tap Study on any verse in Bless: Scroll Catholic Bible and it opens in three tabs: Context, where the verse sits in the story; Study, the Hebrew or Greek behind it (or the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate), with Bishop Challoner’s notes and Catechism links; and Your Life, what it asks of you today.
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- 29,201verses with Hebrew or Greek (92.9% of the protocanonical books)
- 4key words at most, per verse
- 99.2%of verses with the Latin
- 1,306chapter summaries by Bp. Challoner
Tab by tab
Genesis 1:1, as Bless has it.
The first verse of the Bible, with everything its Study page holds. Tap the tabs.
In the beginning, God created heaven and earth.
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Context
Free Bishop Challoner on the chapters around the verse, and an introduction to the book.
This chapter · 1
God createth Heaven and Earth, and all things therein, in six days.
What comes next · Chapter 2
God resteth on the seventh day and blesseth it. The earthly paradise, in which God placeth man. He commandeth him not to eat of the tree of knowledge. And formeth a woman of his rib.
About Genesis · Origins narrative
Genesis opens the Bible with the stories Israel told about where everything came from: the world, the human family, and the one people God chose to begin repairing it. Tradition names Moses as its author, though the Church today recognizes that the book took shape over centuries from Israel's oldest traditions. It was written to give a wandering, often defeated people their identity: you are not an accident, you are the family of Abraham, carried by promises God does not break. Everything after it — law, prophets, gospels — assumes the story this book tells first.
Premium · also on this tab
- In plain English
- Who’s speaking
- What’s happening here
- Where this sits
Study
Premium The Hebrew behind the verse, key words explained, and the Church’s teaching on it.
In the Hebrew
בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ
Words worth knowing
- רֵאשִׁית rêʼshîyththe first, in place, time, order or rank (specifically, a firstfruit)
- בָּרָא bârâʼ(absolutely) to create; (qualified) to cut down (a wood), select, feed (as formative processes)
- שָׁמַיִם shâmayimthe sky (as aloft)
Westminster Leningrad Codex (OSHB, CC BY 4.0) · glosses from Strong’s · Read this verse in the Leningrad Codex
A word worth knowing
רֵאשִׁית rêʼshîyth
Reshith means the beginning — the first of something, its head or starting point. But it is also Israel's word for firstfruits, the first and best portion of a harvest, the part set aside for God. So the Bible's opening word carries a quiet claim: the beginning of all things is not just a point in time but a first portion that belongs to him.
Catechism connections
Paragraph numbers and the Catechism’s own headings · never quoted
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- Why it matters
- Easy to miss
- The bigger picture
- Where it gets difficult
Your Life
Premium One thing to carry from the verse, and verses to read beside it.
Key takeaway
You exist because God chose it — the world is a gift, not an accident.
Live it today
Sometime today, stop for one minute in front of something you did not make — the sky, a tree, another person — and thank God for it out loud or in silence.
Read alongside
- John 1:1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word.
- Psalm 32:6By the word of the Lord, the heavens were established, and all their power, by the Spirit of his mouth:
- Colossians 1:16For in him was created everything in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominations, or principalities, or powers. All things were created through him and in him.
Catholic Public Domain Version
Hebrew & Greek
Key words, counted honestly.
Bless carries the Hebrew of 21,942 Old Testament verses and the Greek of 7,259 New Testament verses: 29,201 in all, 92.9% of the 31,431 verses in the 66 protocanonical books. For each, it picks up to four key words and gives the lemma, its transliteration and Strong’s gloss. It is a word study, not an interlinear.
The Hebrew is the Westminster Leningrad Codex from the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (CC BY 4.0); the Greek is the Byzantine Majority Text; the glosses are from Strong’s dictionaries (Greek 1890; Hebrew, in the edition used, 1894). A chapter is included only when its verses pair exactly with the numbering Bless uses (the Vulgate’s), so a word is never shown against the wrong verse.
The deuterocanonical books have no Hebrew or Greek in Bless. Their Study tab shows the Latin.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word.
In the Greek
Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος.
Words worth knowing
- ἀρχή archḗ(properly abstract) a commencement, or (concretely) chief (in various applications of order, time, place, or rank)
- λόγος lógossomething said (including the thought)
Byzantine Majority Text · glosses from Strong’s · Read this verse on STEP Bible
The Latin
Where there is no Hebrew or Greek, the Latin.
In the deuterocanonical books (Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, 1 and 2 Maccabees and the Greek parts of Esther and Daniel) and in the few chapters Bless couldn’t pair, Study opens on the verse in the Clementine Vulgate of 1592. Bless has the Latin of 35,516 verses, 99.2% of the Bible; 15 chapters have none.
Both of Bless’s English translations follow this Latin: the CPDV was translated from it, and Bishop Challoner’s 1749–52 revision of the Douay-Rheims, the one Bless carries, follows its text. That is why their verse and psalm numbers match it.
But the souls of the just are in the hand of God and no torment of death will touch them.
In the Latin
Justorum autem animæ in manu Dei sunt, et non tanget illos tormentum mortis.
Clementine Vulgate, 1592 — the text the CPDV was translated from
Free The Latin card is free for everyone.
FAQ
Questions, answered.
Is there Hebrew and Greek for the whole Bible?
No. Bless has it for 29,201 verses, 92.9% of the protocanonical books, and none for the deuterocanonical books, which show the Latin instead.
Is it an interlinear Bible?
No. Each verse gets its Hebrew or Greek text and up to four key words explained, not a word-for-word line.
Does Study work offline?
Yes. Every card for every verse ships inside the app.