Adding Scripture to a website or app usually means licensing a translation and wiring up a key-managed API. The NET Bible Web Service skips both: Bible.org Labs offers a single free GET endpoint that returns NET Bible passages on request, with no API key and no signup.^1
Every request goes to one base URL with a passage parameter, and the service accepts a single verse, a range, or several passages separated by semicolons.^1 Two special passages return the Bible.org Verse of the Day or a random verse.^1 A formatting parameter controls presentation, from full markup with note tags down to plain text, and a type parameter returns text, XML, JSON, or JSONP.^1 The same Labs site offers NETBibleTagger, a companion tool that turns Bible references already on a webpage into hover-able links that display the text in place.^2
Check the terms before building, because they are the condition of use. Its copyright page sets the use terms for Bible.org content: personal and non-commercial study use, attribution on anything extracted, and no commercial reprint without written permission.^3 The API documentation adds that use must comply with the NET Bible Copyright.^1 Those terms allow quoting the verse text in non-commercial publications without written permission, with the (NET) designation and the copyright acknowledgment naming Biblical Studies Press.^4
Bible.org is a non-profit Christian ministry headquartered in Dallas, Texas, launched in 1994 to use the Internet for Christian ministry.^6 In 1995 its online studies needed a free online Bible, because copyrighted translations could not be quoted at that scale, so the NET Bible was commissioned for free Internet use in ministry.^7 The NET Bible is a new translation by more than 25 scholars who worked directly from the best available Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts, with 60,932 translators' notes in the first edition.^7 Its doctrinal statement affirms the Bible as "the inspired Word of God, without error in the original writings" and the substitutionary death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the only ground for justification and salvation.^5
Notable- Free with no API key or signup required.^1
- One endpoint returns NET text as text, XML, JSON, or JSONP, with verse of the day and random verse options.^1
- Full formatting carries the note tags behind the NET's translators' notes.^1
- Non-commercial terms and the attribution requirement are published up front in Bible.org's copyright statement.^3
