Building a Bible app, a church website feature, or a study tool, and need Scripture text you can call from code? bible-api.com is a free JSON API for retrieving Bible verses and passages, provided by developer Tim Morgan.^1 There is no API key and no signup: the terms of use say the service is free for anyone to use.^1
Two interfaces cover most needs. The User Input API takes what a person types - a full reference like John 3:16, an abbreviation like jn 3:16, or a range written with hyphens and commas - and returns the matching verses.^1 The Parameterized API is the precise counterpart: build a URL from a translation, book, and chapter identifier and get exactly that passage, and a random verse endpoint can draw from one book, a set of books, or the whole Old or New Testament.^1 Responses are JSON, and CORS support means browser JavaScript can call the API directly.^1
Both interfaces serve the same 17 translations, each one public domain or freely licensed, including the World English Bible (the default), the King James Version, the American Standard Version, the Darby Bible, and the Douay-Rheims in English, plus translations in Cherokee, Chinese, Czech, Latin, Portuguese, Romanian, and Russian.^3 Use is rate limited to 15 requests every 30 seconds, and anyone who needs the full text of a translation is pointed to the open data rather than downloading it through the API.^1 Its privacy policy says the service keeps only technical server logs, deletes them after 30 days, and retains no other data.^1
The story behind it is simple and open-handed. Tim Morgan has run bible-api.com as a hobby project since 2014, and both the code and the underlying Bible data are public: the application is open source under the MIT license, and the translations live in a public repository, so anyone who needs a more reliable setup can host their own copy.^2 Scripture text with no gatekeeper, ready for whatever a builder wants to make with it.
Notable- Completely free, with no API key, account, or paywall.^1
- 17 public domain or freely licensed translations, named in the API itself.^3
- Open source under the MIT license, with open data, so the service can be self-hosted.^2
- CORS enabled for direct use from browser JavaScript.^1
- Catalogued by get.bible among its Bible APIs and digital Scripture datasets for app integration.^4
