Bible Study API

Source-backed Bible text API over HTTP and MCP

bible.grod.es is not a devotional app or a passage website. It is a public product and API surface over local Bible study data: base texts, witnesses, ancient translations, variants, lexical data, source inventories, provenance and audit trails.

What this is for

Use the API when an answer needs inspectable rows, witness-aware comparison, lexical evidence, textual criticism signals, provenance, source coverage or auditability. Responses are designed to be compact for humans, scripts and LLM agents.

The current inventory reports 58 source inventories across 8 source families. The command surface has 11 commands exposed consistently over HTTP, MCP and CLI.

Connect over MCP

The public MCP endpoint is https://bible.grod.es/mcp. Agents can also discover it from /.well-known/mcp/server-card.json, /llms-full.txt, and the Link response headers on this page.

Command surface

studySynthesize a reference, word, entity, topic, or source object through the main bounded aggregator./api/study · MCP bible_studysearchFind text, lexical data, resources, entities, and optional precomputed semantic neighbors./api/search · MCP bible_searchinspectProve claims by inspecting exact objects and source-backed rows./api/inspect · MCP bible_inspectcompareCompare readings across selected sources, witnesses, or traditions./api/compare · MCP bible_comparediffShow exact textual changes between two aligned sources or witnesses./api/diff · MCP bible_diffmapMap relationships, paths, and neighborhoods with bounded depth./api/map · MCP bible_mapnotableDiscover notable signals for a target or scope./api/notable · MCP bible_notabletimelineBuild chronology for textual, historical, witness, or source events./api/timeline · MCP bible_timelineauditAudit trust: coverage, provenance, gaps, limits, and review status./api/audit · MCP bible_auditsourcesInventory source provenance, capabilities, and coverage./api/sources · MCP bible_sourcesstatusReport local health, runtime safety, command inventory, and semantic capability./api/status · MCP bible_status

Example

curl -s 'https://bible.grod.es/api/compare?target=Deut+32%3A8&sources=MT&sources=LXX&include=alignment&include=signals'

For machine-readable schemas, use /openapi.json. For agent-oriented instructions, use /llms-full.txt and /api/skill.

Caveats

  • DSS material is fragmentary and should be treated as witness evidence, not full corpus coverage.
  • LXX GreekResources data is lemma-level and is not a full critical apparatus.
  • No full proprietary critical apparatus is shipped.
  • Semantic neighbors use precomputed local data. The HTTP and MCP runtime does not call LLM or embedding APIs.