canonical: https://jentic.com/apis/bible/bible # Bible The Bible API 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. ## For AI agents Browse and search a multilingual catalogue of licensed Bible translations, fetch passages and verses, and run keyword search via API.Bible. ## Scope Does not handle audio Bibles, commentaries, or user accounts - use for licensed Bible text retrieval and search only. ## Capabilities - 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 - Look up passages and individual verses for citation in study materials - Search a Bible translation for a keyword or phrase ## Use cases ### 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. Example prompt: 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. Example prompt: 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. Example prompt: 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. Example prompt: Search Jentic for 'search a Bible translation', execute `/bibles/{bibleId}/search` with query 'covenant', and cite the top three results. ## Key endpoints | 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 | ## Key resources - **Bibles** — List and retrieve metadata for available Bible translations - **Books** — Browse and retrieve books within a translation - **Chapters** — Retrieve chapter content as text, HTML, or USFM - **Passages** — Fetch passages spanning multiple verses by identifier - **Verses** — Retrieve individual verses for citation - **Search** — Run keyword search inside a translation ## AI readiness This API is usable in Jentic One now. Its AI-readiness score against Jentic's framework shows where it stands today and where improvements would make it even easier for agents to use. - **Score:** 65 / 100 - **Maturity:** AI-Aware - **Dimensions:** - Foundational Compliance: 100 / 100 - Developer Experience & Jentic Compatibility: 63 / 100 - AI-Readiness & Agent Experience: 46 / 100 - Agent Usability: 94 / 100 - Security: 50 / 100 - AI Discoverability: 77 / 100 - **View full report:** https://jentic.com/apis/bible/bible/scorecard - **How the score is calculated:** https://docs.jentic.com/reference/api-readiness-framework/overview/ - **More about the dimensions:** https://docs.jentic.com/reference/api-readiness-framework/specification/#dimensional-model-overview ### Score it yourself Every API in the directory is allowlisted, so you can re-score it with no key required. - **Score your own API:** https://jentic.com/scorecard.md - **Scoring CLI agent skill:** https://github.com/jentic/jentic-api-scorecard/blob/main/skills/jentic-api-scorecard/SKILL.md ```sh npx @jentic/api-scorecard-cli score ``` ## Why Jentic - **Setup:** Wiring The Bible API by hand means passing its api-key header on every call and threading the bibleId through every book, chapter, passage, and search path yourself. Through Jentic you install once, import The Bible API from the API Directory, store the key once, and your agent calls it. - **Permission scoping:** The Bible API puts the translation id in the URL path (`/bibles/{bibleId}/...`), so a rule can pin your agent to one Bible translation: it can read that translation's books, chapters, and passages and nothing else. Every operation is read-only, so no write path is reachable. - **Credential handling:** Your API.Bible key is stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance and injected at execution time. It never enters the agent's prompt, logs, or context. - **Discovery method:** Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'search a Bible translation' or 'get a passage by id', and Jentic returns the matching operation with its input schema so the agent calls the right endpoint without browsing the reference docs. ## Related APIs - **Bible API (free)** — bible-api.com offers free public-domain Bible lookups without an API key, but with fewer translations. - **Al Quran Cloud API** — Al Quran Cloud serves Quran lookups for multi-faith scripture applications. - **Bhagavad Gita API** — Bhagavad Gita API covers Hindu scripture lookup alongside API.Bible's Christian content. ## FAQ ### 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 your Jentic One instance 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. ### Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the API.Bible API? Yes. Because you run Jentic One yourself, your own rules decide which API.Bible operations and credentials the agent may use. Since the translation id sits in the URL path (`/bibles/{bibleId}/...`), you can pin the agent to a single Bible translation so it only reads that translation's books, chapters, passages, verses, and search results and nothing else. Every operation is read-only, so no write path is ever reachable.