📖 bible

A fast, local Bible study tool for your terminal.

Look up verses, explore the Greek, dig into Strong's numbers, and see what the original words really mean — all from your keyboard, with no internet needed after initial setup.

bible "John 3:16"

John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
— ESV

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✨ What it can do

📜 Verse & chapter lookup

bible "Rom 8:28"
bible "Ps 23"
bible "1 Cor 13"
bible "2 Peter 1:5-7"

Abbreviations work too — Gen, 1 Cor, Ps, Rev, etc.

🔤 Strong's numbers

See the Greek behind each English word at a glance:

bible "John 3:16" --strongs

John 3:16
For(G1063) God(G2316) so(G3779) loved(G25) the world(G2889), that(G5620) he gave(G1325) his(G846) only(G3439) Son(G5207) ...

Strong's numbers are included for the ESV text (NT + much of the OT).

🖼️ Word pictures

What did those Greek words really picture? Robertson's Word Pictures, Strong's, and Abbott-Smith — all built in.

bible "John 3:16" --picture

loved (G25) — ἀγαπάω (agapáō) — love
love you decide on.\

world (G2889) — κόσμος (kósmos) — world
a woman putting on her jewellery.\

only (G3439) — μονογενής (monogenḗs) — only, only begotten
the only child.

Covers all 4,826 Greek words in the New Testament.

🇬🇷 The Greek New Testament

bible -i
> John 3:16
> g

Shows the SBL Greek New Testament — the same text scholars use — in its original language:

John 3:16 (SBL Greek NT)
Οὕτως γὰρ ἠγάπησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν κόσμον ὥστε τὸν υἱὸν τὸν μονογενῆ ἔδωκεν, ἵνα πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων εἰς αὐτὸν μὴ ἀπόληται ἀλλὰ ἔχῃ ζωὴν αἰώνιον.

💬 Interactive mode

Settle in for real study. bible -i starts a REPL that remembers what you're looking at:

bible -i

> John 3:16
[shows the verse]
> g
[shows the Greek]
> s
[shows Strong's numbers]
> p
[shows word pictures]
> t kjv
[switches to King James Version]
> search "living water"
[full-text search]
> q

Commands: g / greek, s / strongs, p / picture, t esv|kjv, search <query>, random, help, q.

🔍 Full-text search

Search across all books with ripgrep (fast) or Python (fallback):

bible search "faith and works"
bible search "living water" -t kjv

📋 More commands

Command	What it does
bible list books	List all books and their chapter counts
bible trans	Show available translations
bible random	Random verse
bible ref	Interactive fzf browser (if you have fzf)
bible update	Download or refresh Bible data

🎨 Output options

Flag	Effect
--json	Machine-readable JSON output
--plain	Plain text, no formatting
-c 2	Show 2 context verses before and after
-t kjv	Use King James Version (default: ESV)

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📦 Install

You'll need Python 3.12 and uv.

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/bible
cd bible
uv sync

Then use it:

uv run bible "John 3:16"

Or install it as a standalone tool:

uv tool install .
bible "John 3:16"

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📚 Data

Translation	Source	Notes
ESV (2011)	mdbible	With word-level Strong's numbers
KJV (1769)	kjv-markdown	Public domain
SBL Greek NT	SBLGNT	CC BY 4.0, scholarly standard
Word Pictures	Every Promise	Robertson, Strong's, Abbott-Smith

First-run bible update downloads everything. After that, you're fully offline.

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❤️ Why this exists

Bible study shouldn't require a heavy app or an internet connection. This tool is for anyone who lives in a terminal — or anyone who wants a fast, distraction-free way to engage with Scripture in the original languages without jumping between websites.

It's local. It's fast. And the Greek is free.