Free Use Bible API

TypeScript and JavaScript client for the public Free Use Bible API:

• https://bible.helloao.org

Installation

npm install free-use-bible-api

pnpm add free-use-bible-api

yarn add free-use-bible-api

Quick Start

import { FreeUseBibleApi } from 'free-use-bible-api';

const api = new FreeUseBibleApi();

const available = await api.getAvailableTranslations();
console.log('Total translations:', available.translations.length);

const books = await api.getTranslationBooks('BSB');
console.log('Books in BSB:', books.books.length);

const chapter = await api.getTranslationBookChapter('BSB', 'GEN', 1);
console.log('Verses in Genesis 1:', chapter.numberOfVerses);

Client Options

You can customize the client with FreeUseBibleApiOptions:

import { FreeUseBibleApi } from 'free-use-bible-api';

const api = new FreeUseBibleApi({
    endpoint: 'https://bible.helloao.org/',
    useCache: true,
});

• endpoint: Base API endpoint.
• useCache: Enables in-memory response caching (default: true).

API Methods

Translations

• getAvailableTranslations(endpoint?)
• getTranslationBooks(translation, endpoint?)
• getTranslationBookChapter(translation, book, chapter, endpoint?)
• getCompleteTranslation(translation, endpoint?)

getCompleteTranslation() disables per-request cache internally because payloads are typically large.

Commentaries

• getAvailableCommentaries(endpoint?)
• getCommentaryBooks(commentary, endpoint?)
• getCommentaryBookChapter(commentary, book, chapter, endpoint?)

Datasets

• getAvailableDatasets(endpoint?)
• getDatasetBooks(dataset, endpoint?)
• getDatasetBookChapter(dataset, book, chapter, endpoint?)

Chapter Navigation Helpers

• getNextChapter(chapter, endpoint?)
• getPreviousChapter(chapter, endpoint?)

These helpers work with translation, commentary, and dataset chapter responses.

Examples

Get a complete translation

const complete = await api.getCompleteTranslation('BSB');
console.log(complete.translation.id);
console.log(complete.books.length);

Read a commentary chapter

const comm = await api.getCommentaryBookChapter('matthew_henry', 'GEN', 1);
console.log(comm.book.name);

Read a dataset chapter

const dataChapter = await api.getDatasetBookChapter(
    'cross_references',
    'JHN',
    3
);
console.log(dataChapter.book.name);

Navigate to next/previous chapter

const current = await api.getTranslationBookChapter('BSB', 'GEN', 1);

const next = await api.getNextChapter(current);
const previous = await api.getPreviousChapter(current);

console.log(next?.chapter.number);
console.log(previous?.chapter.number);

Direct HTTP Endpoints

Translation endpoints

• GET /api/available_translations.json
• GET /api/{translation}/books.json
• GET /api/{translation}/{book}/{chapter}.json
• GET /api/{translation}/complete.json

Commentary endpoints

• GET /api/available_commentaries.json
• GET /api/{commentary}/books.json
• GET /api/{commentary}/{book}/{chapter}.json

Dataset endpoints

• GET /api/available_datasets.json
• GET /api/d/{dataset}/books.json
• GET /api/d/{dataset}/{book}/{chapter}.json

Example requests:

curl https://bible.helloao.org/api/available_translations.json
curl https://bible.helloao.org/api/BSB/books.json
curl https://bible.helloao.org/api/BSB/GEN/1.json
curl https://bible.helloao.org/api/available_commentaries.json
curl https://bible.helloao.org/api/available_datasets.json

Error Handling

Methods throw on non-2xx responses.

A 404 response usually means one of the path values is invalid, for example:

• translation
• commentary
• dataset
• book
• chapter

Notes

• Uses the global fetch API.
• For Node.js, use a runtime that provides fetch (Node 18+ recommended) or polyfill it.