The Bible API

Name: The Bible API API
Brand: API.Bible
Availability: InStock

✓ Official Vendor SpecEducationLmsapiKey8 EndpointsREST

For Agents

Browse and search a multilingual catalogue of licensed Bible translations, fetch passages and verses, and run keyword search via API.Bible.

Quickstart

Get started with The Bible API in minutes using your preferred integration method.

# Add to your MCP client config (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf)
{
  "jentic": {
    "url": "https://api.jentic.com/mcp",
    "auth": "oauth"
  }
}

# Then ask your agent:
"search a Bible translation"

# → Jentic returns the GET /events tool with parameter schema, agent executes.

Capabilities

What an agent can do with The Bible API API.

List every Bible translation available in the API.Bible catalogue

Retrieve metadata for a specific Bible by its identifier

Browse the books available within a chosen Bible translation

Fetch a specific book of the Bible with its chapter list

Retrieve a chapter as plain text, HTML, or USFM markup

GET STARTED

Start building with The Bible API API

Explore with Jentic

View OpenAPI Document

Use for: I need to list every available Bible translation, Find the Bible identifier for the King James Version, Get the books of a specific Bible translation, Retrieve a chapter from a Bible by its identifier

Not supported: Does not handle audio Bibles, commentaries, or user accounts — use for licensed Bible text retrieval and search only.

API.Bible (the Scripture API by the American Bible Society) provides licensed access to a large catalogue of Bible translations across many languages, including content normally locked behind copyright. Agents can list the available Bibles, browse books and chapters, fetch passages and individual verses, and run keyword search across a chosen translation. Authentication uses an api-key header issued by the API.Bible developer portal. The 8-endpoint surface is small enough to navigate quickly while the underlying content covers thousands of translations.

Use Cases

Patterns agents use The Bible API API for, with concrete tasks.

★ Multilingual Scripture Reading App

Power a mobile app that lets users read the Bible in their preferred language and translation. The /bibles endpoint exposes the full multilingual catalogue, /bibles/{bibleId}/books lists books, and /bibles/{bibleId}/chapters/{chapterId} returns the chapter text with optional HTML or USFM formatting. API.Bible's licensed translations make this practical for distribution in stores that require licensed content.

Fetch /bibles to list translations, then /bibles/{bibleId}/books to populate the book picker for the chosen translation.

Sermon Preparation Search

Help a preacher find every passage that mentions a topic, such as 'forgiveness' or 'covenant'. The /bibles/{bibleId}/search endpoint runs a keyword search inside the chosen translation and returns matching passage references with snippets. The results can be expanded by calling /bibles/{bibleId}/passages/{passageId} for the full passage text.

Search /bibles/{bibleId}/search for query 'forgiveness' and return the top 10 passage references with snippets.

Citation Lookup for Study Notes

Resolve verse citations in academic study notes by calling /bibles/{bibleId}/verses/{verseId} for each cited verse. The verse object includes the canonical reference and text in the chosen translation, so footnotes can be expanded to full text on hover or in print.

Call /bibles/de4e12af7f28f599-02/verses/JHN.3.16 and return the verse text for a footnote.

AI Agent Bible Study Companion

An AI agent answering questions about the Bible can call API.Bible through Jentic to ground its answers in a specific licensed translation. The agent searches Jentic by intent ('search Bible for keyword'), loads the schema, and executes — Jentic injects the api-key header so the agent never sees the credential and the answer cites a specific Bible identifier.

Search Jentic for 'search a Bible translation', execute /bibles/{bibleId}/search with query 'covenant', and cite the top three results.

Key Endpoints

8 endpoints — api.

METHOD

PATH

DESCRIPTION

GET

/bibles

List all Bibles

GET

/bibles/{bibleId}

Get a Bible

GET

/bibles/{bibleId}/books

List books in a Bible

GET

/bibles/{bibleId}/chapters/{chapterId}

Get a chapter

GET

/bibles/{bibleId}/passages/{passageId}

Get a passage

GET

/bibles/{bibleId}/verses/{verseId}

Get a verse

GET

/bibles/{bibleId}/search

Search a Bible

GET

/bibles

List all Bibles

GET

/bibles/{bibleId}

Get a Bible

GET

/bibles/{bibleId}/books

List books in a Bible

GET

/bibles/{bibleId}/chapters/{chapterId}

Get a chapter

GET

/bibles/{bibleId}/passages/{passageId}

Get a passage

GET

Why though Jentic?

Three things that make agents converge on Jentic-routed access.

Credential isolation

API.Bible api-key tokens are stored encrypted in the Jentic vault (MAXsystem). Agents call API.Bible operations via Jentic and the api-key header is injected at execution time — raw keys never enter the agent's context, even when the agent is generating user-visible output.

Intent-based discovery

Agents search by intent (e.g., 'search a Bible translation') and Jentic returns the matching operation with its parameters and bibleId requirement, so the agent does not need to memorise the eight-endpoint shape or how chapter and verse identifiers are formed.

Time to first call

Direct API.Bible integration: 1-2 days for api-key handling, identifier formats, and search response parsing. Through Jentic: under 30 minutes — search, load schema, execute.

Related APIs

Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.

Alternative

Bible API (free)

bible-api.com offers free public-domain Bible lookups without an API key, but with fewer translations.

Choose bible-api.com for quick, no-key, public-domain lookups; choose API.Bible when licensed translations or search are required.

Complementary

Al Quran Cloud API

Al Quran Cloud serves Quran lookups for multi-faith scripture applications.

Use both in a comparative-religion application: API.Bible for Christian translations and Al Quran Cloud for the Quran.

Complementary

Bhagavad Gita API

Bhagavad Gita API covers Hindu scripture lookup alongside API.Bible's Christian content.

Pair the two in a multi-faith study product to surface scripture from each tradition.

FAQs

Specific to using The Bible API API through Jentic.

What authentication does API.Bible use?

API.Bible uses an apiKey scheme on a header named api-key. Register on the API.Bible developer portal to obtain a key, then include it on every request. Through Jentic, the api-key value is stored encrypted in the Jentic vault (MAXsystem) and injected at execution time so the agent never sees the raw key.

Can I search a specific Bible translation?

Yes. GET /bibles/{bibleId}/search accepts a query parameter and returns matching passages within the chosen translation. Use /bibles to find the bibleId for the translation you want to search; the response includes language, abbreviation, and copyright information.

How many Bible translations does API.Bible cover?

The catalogue covers thousands of translations across many languages, including licensed modern English versions when permitted by the licence. Call /bibles to retrieve the live list — the response includes language, name, and any copyright restrictions per translation.

How do I read a chapter through Jentic?

Search Jentic for 'get a Bible chapter', load /bibles/{bibleId}/chapters/{chapterId}, and execute with the chapter identifier (such as GEN.1). With the SDK: pip install jentic, then SearchRequest, LoadRequest, and ExecutionRequest in an async flow.

Is API.Bible free to use?

API.Bible offers a free developer tier with rate limits and a paid tier for higher-volume or commercial use. Check the API.Bible portal for the current tier limits — they are not declared in the OpenAPI spec.