Verpoorten, Wilhelm Paul, a German theolo- gian, son of Albrecht JMeno, was born Sept. 4, 1721, at Neustadt. Having graduated at Dantzic with the trea- tise De A ucfore Secund(e I'erlueque Fpistolte Johannis (1741 ), he went to Jena, where he publicly spoke (1743) on Cidor sub Nube T(rrrenle Fsa. xxr, 5, in Versione Ilieronymi Vulgataque Obviits, ad Textuni Hebrceum Reigue ipsiiis Xati/7-am Expensus. In the same year he went to Leipsic, where, on account of his disserta-
tion De Concilio (Ecumenico Secundo, Const antinopoU- tano Primo (1745), he received the privilege of lectur- ing. But bodily infirmities of h'is father called him home, where he prepared liiinself tor the ministry. In 1751 he was appointed pastor at Stiiblau, near Dantzic; in 1762 he was called as second deacon to Dantzic; and in 1770 he was placed at the head of the gymnasium there, where he died, Jan. 17, 1794. Besides the disser- tations already mentioned, he wrote. Diss. Inavg. de llabilu Legis ad Pcenitentiam et Fidem (presented to the Kiinigsberg University for the degree of doctor of tiivinity, 1770) : — Progr. de Prcesidiis Theologo ex His- toria Ecclesice Petendis (Gedani, 1770) : — Diss.de Resur- rectione Impiorum Merita Christi non Impetrata (ibid. 1774) : — Diss, de Viudiciis Doctrince de Suppliciis Dam- natoi-um yEternis (ibid. 1774). For his other writings see Dciring, Gelehrte Theologen Deutschlands im IHleri und 19/e« Jahrhundert, iv, 592 sq. (B. P.)
Verrio, An tonio, a Neapolitan painter, was born at Lecce about 1639. After making considerable progress in the art, he visited Venice to study the coloring of the Venetian school. After some time he returned to Na- ples, where he gained much notoriety through the exe- cution of certain gaj' paintings. In 1660 he painted a large picture in fresco of Christ Healing the Sick, in the College of the Jesuits, which was markeil for its fine coloring. He next went to France and painted the high-altar of the Carmelites at Toulouse. Shortly after this he went to England in the service of Charles II, who desired him to direct the manufacture of tapestry at Mortlake; but the king changed his mind, and Ver- rio was employed on the frescos of Windsor Castle, After the accession of James II he was again enyiloj'ed at Windsor in " Wolsey's Tomb-house," then to be con- verted into a Roman Catholic chapel. Ket'using for a time to enter the service of William III, he painted for the nobility, but afterwards was induced to paint for the king. He was granted an annual pension of £200 by queen Anne, but died in 1707. He is described by Walpole as " an excellent painter for the sort of subjects on which he was employed, that is, without much in- vention, and with less taste; his exuberant pencil was ready at pouring out gods, goddesses, kings, emperors, and triumphs, over those public surfaces on which the eye never rests long enough to criticise, and where one should be sorry to place the works of a better master; I mean ceilings and staircases. The New Testament or the Roman history cost him nothing but ultramarine; that and marble columns and marble steps he never spared."
Verschorists, a sect that derived its denomina- tion from Jacob Verschoor, a native of Flushing, in the Netherlands, who in the year 1680, out of a perverse and heterogeneous mixture of the tenets of Cocceius and Spinoza, produced a new form of religion, equally re- markable for its extravagance and impiety. His disci- ples and followers were called Ilebreu-s, on account of the zeal and assiduity with which they all, without distinc- tion of age or sex, applied themselves to the study of the Hebrew language. Their sentiments were nearly the same as those of the Hattemists (q. v.). See Mosheim, Hist, of the Church, bk. iv, cent, xvii, § ii, pt. ii, ch. ii.
Verschuir, Joiiann Hkinuich, a Protestant theo- logian of Germany, and professor of Oriental languages at Franeker, who died May 20, 1803, is the author of, Dissei'tatio de Paronomasia Orientaiibus midtum A du- mata, qum est Octara in ejusdem Dissertationibus Phi- lologico-exegeticis (Franeker, 1773): — Dissertatio Cri- tica, qua Lectio Codicis Hebrmi in Loco Celebri Deut. xxvii, 4 Defenditur, et Lectio Samaritani Textus tati- quam Spuria Rejicitur (ibid. 1767) : — Dissert ationes Phi- lologico-exegeticm (ibid. 1773). See Fiirst, Bibl. Jud. iii, 475 ; Steinschneider, Biliogi-aphisches Handb. s. v. ; Wi- ner, llandb. der theol. Literatur, i, 221. (B. P.)
Verse, as a written or typographical division in the text of the Bible, has a historical and literary interest which justifies its full treatment here.
VERSE
757
VERSE
I. Tn Manuscripts. — Umler this head we consider the members of rhythmical passages, the h)<;ical divisions in the prose books peculiar to the versions, and the log- ical divisions in the original texts.
1. The term verse (j-ersus, from certo, " to turn"), like the Greek arixoQ, was applied by the Romans to lines in general, whether in prose or verse, but more partic- ularly to the rhythmical divisions, which generally com- menced the line with a capital letter. The custom of writing poetical books in stanzas was common to the Greeks, Romans, Arabians, and Hebrews. The poetical books (viz. Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Can- ticles), in the oldest Hebrew MSS., as the Paris, Bod- leian, Cassel, and Regiomontanus, are also thus divided ; and some poetical passages in the historical books are still given in this form in our printed Hebrew Bibles. The Alexandrian 5IS., and those of the Italic version, are equally so written; and this division is found in the Psaltcrium Turicense, the Verona and St. Germain Psal- ters, and in !AIartianay's edition of Jerome. Athanasius applied the term aTi-)^0Q to the passage in Psa. cxix, G"2, "I arose at midnight to praise thee for the judgment of thy righteousness ;" and Chrysostom observes, on Psa. xlii, that "each stich ((Tr(\of) suffices to afford us much philosophy." He also uses the term pi'iaiQ in the same sense. The poetical books are called by Epiphauius the five aTixi]piic.