# For developers — the Besorah API, MCP server, feeds and data formats

> Use the whole Bible in your own tools: Markdown, plain text and JSON for every page, a REST API with OpenAPI, an MCP server with 23 study tools, Atom/JSON feeds and calendars for the reading schedules. Free, no key.

Source: https://besorah.bible/about/api/ — Besorah, the whole Bible in Hebrew, Greek and English. Read it online: https://besorah.bible/ · Developer guide: https://besorah.bible/about/api/ · Credits: https://besorah.bible/about/credits.html

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Build with it

# For developers

Everything on besorah.bible is also available to programs: the texts in Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic and English with word-by-word Strong’s and parsing, the lexicon, cross-references and study tools. Free, read-only, no key. Please link back to the `url` each response carries, and keep requests reasonable.

## Any page, in any format

Every chapter, book, word and list page exists as Markdown, plain text and JSON. Add a suffix, or ask with an `Accept` header; each HTML page also names its alternates in `Link` headers and `<link rel="alternate">` tags.

`curl https://besorah.bible/tanakh/psalms/23.json
curl https://besorah.bible/tanakh/psalms/23.txt
curl https://besorah.bible/tanakh/psalms/23.md
curl -H 'Accept: application/json' https://besorah.bible/word/H430`

## REST API

Described by OpenAPI at [/api/openapi.json](https://besorah.bible/api/openapi.json) (also at [/openapi.json](https://besorah.bible/openapi.json)); an index of everything at [/api](https://besorah.bible/api); catalogue at `/.well-known/api-catalog`. Every MCP tool is a REST endpoint: `GET /api/tools/{name}?arg=value` or `POST` JSON. Add `max_chars` to cap an answer and `format=markdown` for a readable one.

`curl 'https://besorah.bible/api/verse?ref=John 3:16-17'
curl 'https://besorah.bible/api/word?id=H430'
curl 'https://besorah.bible/api/tools/search_text?query=shepherd&language=english&book=Psalms'
curl -X POST https://besorah.bible/api/tools/query_words -H 'content-type: application/json' -d '{"grammar":"Hiphil imperative","book":"Isaiah"}'`

## MCP server (for AI assistants)

Setting it up in Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or VS Code, with example prompts, is on [Use with AI](https://besorah.bible/about/ai/). A remote Model Context Protocol server over HTTP: `https://besorah.bible/mcp` (discovery card: [/.well-known/mcp.json](https://besorah.bible/.well-known/mcp.json)). 23 tools, plus resources and prompts. Everything in one file for an assistant to read: [/llms-full.txt](https://besorah.bible/llms-full.txt).

`claude mcp add --transport http besorah https://besorah.bible/mcp`

Tool | What it does

`get_passage` | Read a passage (verse, range or chapter) in its original language (Hebrew, Greek or Aramaic) and English, with a link.

`get_verse_study` | Everything Besorah knows about one verse (or a range of up to 5): text, word-by-word Strong's/lemma/parsing, cross-references, quotations between books, curated parallels, similar wording, questions it asks or answers, songs, scribal marks, Ketiv/Qere, Targum connections.

`search_text` | Search the text itself.

`search_words` | Find Hebrew or Greek words (Strong's entries) from an English word, a transliteration ('shalom', 'agape') or the original word.

`get_word` | A Strong's lexicon entry (Hebrew H… or Greek G…): lemma, definition, KJV renderings, occurrences, for Hebrew the Brown–Driver–Briggs entry, how names are built, verses per book, and the Septuagint renderings of a Hebrew word (or the Hebrew words a Greek word renders).

`get_word_occurrences` | Every verse a Strong's number is in (Hebrew Tanakh, Greek New Testament and Septuagint), with the text, optionally within one book.

`get_related_passages` | For one verse: voted cross-references, quotations in either direction between books, curated parallel passages, and similar wording.

`get_cross_references` | Cross-references for one verse (voted, OpenBible.info); the first few include their English text.

`get_book_connections` | The chapters a book (or one chapter) is most joined to by cross-references across the whole Bible.

`list_books` | Every book with its code, chapter count, the editions it exists in, and its URL; also the editions.

`list_songs` | Songs and prayers inside Scripture (the Song of the Sea, Hannah's prayer, the Magnificat…), by kind.

`list_questions` | Questions asked in one place and answered in another (e.g.

`get_targum_connections` | Where the Targumim and the New Testament share an idea or phrase.

`get_parashah` | A weekly Torah portion with its Torah, Haftarah and Besorah (New Testament) readings.

`get_guide` | How Besorah's texts and tools fit together, and the conventions (numbering, ids, codes).

`query_words` | Find every word by grammar and/or Strong's number, within a book or testament — e.g.

`get_collocations` | The words that keep company with a Hebrew or Greek word: which other words most often appear in the same verse, ranked by how much more than chance.

`get_vocabulary` | A book's vocabulary: size, most frequent and most characteristic words (summary); hapax legomena (words used once in the whole text); words used only in that book; or every word by frequency.

`compare_books` | Compare two books' vocabularies: how many words they share, the rare words they share (most of whose uses are in these two books), and the words only one uses.

`get_context` | A verse in its setting in one call: the verses before and after, the verse (or up to 5) word by word, and its cross-references, quotations and parallels.

`trace_theme` | Follow a passage's connections outward — voted cross-references plus quotations and parallels between books — one to three steps, and return the verses most strongly connected, with their text.

`compare_witnesses` | One verse across the texts: Hebrew, the Septuagint (matched by the app's verse tables, even where numbered differently), the Targumim, the Greek and Hebrew New Testament, and the quotations that join them — with the Greek words a New Testament quotation and the Septuagint do and do not share.

`get_quotations` | Where the New Testament quotes the Old, in either direction: give a New Testament book/chapter/verse for the Old Testament passages it quotes, or an Old Testament one for the New Testament passages that quote it.

## Feeds and calendars

The weekly and daily reading schedules, always current: `https://besorah.bible/feeds/torah-portion.xml`, `https://besorah.bible/feeds/besorah-portion.xml`, `https://besorah.bible/feeds/daily-psalms.xml`, `https://besorah.bible/feeds/mels-bible-study.xml` — each also as `.json` (JSON Feed) and `.ics` (calendar); all at once as [OPML](https://besorah.bible/feeds/besorah.opml); any reading plan as `https://besorah.bible/feeds/plan/<plan>.ics?start=YYYY-MM-DD`. See [feeds and calendars](https://besorah.bible/about/feeds/).

## Raw data

The app’s own data files are static JSON under `https://besorah.bible/data/` (start at [manifest.json](https://besorah.bible/data/manifest.json)). Licences and credits — including the CC BY-SA terms on adapted data — are in [/data-licence.txt](https://besorah.bible/data-licence.txt) and [Sources & credits](https://besorah.bible/about/credits.html).

## Other ways to find things

[/llms.txt](https://besorah.bible/llms.txt), [/sitemap.xml](https://besorah.bible/sitemap.xml), [/opensearch.xml](https://besorah.bible/opensearch.xml) (add Besorah as a browser search engine), `/.well-known/security.txt`.