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Introduction

BibleQL is a read-only GraphQL API for Bible text. You send a query describing exactly the verses and fields you want; you get back JSON with nothing extra.

There is a single endpoint:

POST https://bibleql.org/graphql

Only POST is accepted, and every request needs an API key. There are no mutations — BibleQL never modifies anything.

Four concepts​

Almost every query is built out of these.

Translation​

A specific edition of the Bible, addressed by a translation identifier such as eng-web or spa-rv1909. The identifier is what you pass to the translation argument, and it is stable — it will not change under you.

Language​

A translation belongs to a language, identified by a three-letter code (eng, spa, deu). One language usually has several translations. The languages query lists them with counts.

Note that the language of a translation is unrelated to the language of this documentation — you can read the Spanish docs while querying an English Bible.

Book​

Books have a canonical three-letter id — GEN, JHN, MAT — that is identical across every translation. Wherever a query takes a book argument, that id always works.

Reference​

A human-readable pointer to a passage: John 3:16, Genesis 1, Matthew 25:31-33,46. BibleQL parses these, including in the translation's own language, so Juan 3:16 resolves against a Spanish translation. See Bible References.

What BibleQL does not do​

Being explicit about the boundaries saves time:

  • No mutations. It is a reading API. The schema has a Mutation root, but it holds only leftover scaffolding — see API Behavior.
  • No user accounts, highlights, or notes. There is nothing per-user to store.
  • No commentary, cross-references, or study notes. Verse text and structure only.
  • No audio.
  • Not every translation supports every feature. Semantic search needs embeddings and concordance needs an index; both are per-translation. Each guide says what it requires.

Where to go next​

Get a key and make a request in Quickstart, or read Authentication first if you want to understand the key model before using it.