Search

The search endpoint provides advanced full-text search across all scripture verses. It supports a rich query syntax including exact phrases, wildcards, boolean operators, proximity search, and more. Results are returned as a paginated list of matching verses.

Note: For all API url examples the url given is appended to the base url. The base url will include information like the desired API version, denomination, and language of the resource that you are requesting. If you simply append the endpoint to "openscriptureapi.org" you will get a 404 error.

Query syntax

The q parameter supports a rich query syntax for precise searches.

Simple terms

Space-separated words match verses containing all terms (AND logic). The search is case-insensitive by default.

faith hope

Exact phrase

Wrap a phrase in double quotes to match the exact sequence of words.

"plan of salvation"

Ordered proximity

Wrap words in single quotes to match them in order, but allow intervening words between them.

'faith to works'

This matches "faith leads to good works" but not "works lead to faith."

Wildcards

Use * to match one or more characters, or ? to match exactly one character.

house*       → household, housekeeping, housetop
gr?y         → grey, gray
pro?h*       → prophet, prophesy, prophesied

Boolean OR

Use + to match verses containing either term.

faith + belief

Boolean NOT

Use # to exclude verses containing a term.

faith # doubt

Proximity search

Use & with ~N to require both terms within N words of each other (in either order).

faith & works ~5

This matches verses where "faith" and "works" appear within 5 words of each other.

Combining syntax

You can combine all of the above:

"plan of salvation" # death
faith* + believ*

Regex mode

Set regex=true to pass the q parameter as a raw regular expression pattern, bypassing the query parser entirely. This is useful for complex patterns that the query syntax cannot express.

?q=faith|belief®ex=true

Search results model

Each item in the results array represents a single matching verse.

Properties

  • Name
    query
    Type
    string
    Description

    The search term that was used for this request

  • Name
    total
    Type
    integer
    Description

    The total number of verses that match the query (across all pages)

  • Name
    limit
    Type
    integer
    Description

    The maximum number of results returned in this response

  • Name
    offset
    Type
    integer
    Description

    The number of results skipped before this page of results

  • Name
    results
    Type
    array
    Description

    An array of matching verse objects

  • Name
    results[].reference
    Type
    string
    Description

    The human-readable scripture reference, e.g. Alma 32:21

  • Name
    results[].book
    Type
    string
    Description

    The title of the book containing this verse

  • Name
    results[].chapter
    Type
    integer
    Description

    The chapter number containing this verse

  • Name
    results[].verse
    Type
    integer
    Description

    The verse number within its chapter

  • Name
    results[].text
    Type
    string
    Description

    The full plaintext of the matching verse

  • Name
    results[].highlight
    Type
    string
    Description

    A KWIC (Key Word in Context) snippet showing the matched term with surrounding words. Only present when highlight=true.

  • Name
    wordFrequency
    Type
    array
    Description

    Top 20 co-occurring words across the result set (excluding common stop words), each with word and count. Only present when word_frequency=true.

GET/search

Search scripture text

This endpoint searches all scripture verses for the given query and returns a paginated list of matching verses.

Required query parameters

  • Name
    q
    Type
    string
    Description

    The search query. Supports simple terms, exact phrases, wildcards, boolean operators, and proximity search (see Query Syntax above). Set regex=true to use a raw regex pattern.

Optional query parameters

  • Name
    limit
    Type
    integer
    Description

    The maximum number of results to return. Default is 20, maximum is 100.

  • Name
    offset
    Type
    integer
    Description

    The number of results to skip for pagination. Default is 0.

  • Name
    volume
    Type
    string
    Description

    Filter results to a specific volume by its id. For example, bookofmormon, oldtestament, newtestament, doctrineandcovenants, or pearlofgreatprice.

  • Name
    book
    Type
    string
    Description

    Filter results to a specific book by its id. For example, alma, john, 1nephi.

  • Name
    case_sensitive
    Type
    boolean
    Description

    Enable case-sensitive matching. Default is false.

  • Name
    regex
    Type
    boolean
    Description

    Treat the q parameter as a raw regular expression pattern, bypassing query syntax parsing. Default is false.

  • Name
    highlight
    Type
    boolean
    Description

    Include a KWIC (Key Word in Context) highlight snippet for each result, showing the matched term with surrounding context words. Default is false.

  • Name
    highlight_window
    Type
    integer
    Description

    Number of words to include before and after the matched term in the highlight snippet. Default is 5. Only applies when highlight=true.

  • Name
    word_frequency
    Type
    boolean
    Description

    Include a wordFrequency array in the response with the top 20 most frequently co-occurring words across all results (excluding stop words). Default is false.

Simple search

curl "https://openscriptureapi.org/api/scriptures/v1/lds/en/search?q=faith&limit=3"

Response

{
  "query": "faith",
  "total": 336,
  "limit": 3,
  "offset": 0,
  "results": [
    {
      "reference": "Alma 32:21",
      "book": "Alma",
      "chapter": 32,
      "verse": 21,
      "text": "And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true."
    }
  ]
}

Exact phrase

curl "https://openscriptureapi.org/api/scriptures/v1/lds/en/search?q=%22plan+of+salvation%22"

Wildcard + NOT

curl "https://openscriptureapi.org/api/scriptures/v1/lds/en/search?q=bapti*+%23+water"

Proximity search

curl "https://openscriptureapi.org/api/scriptures/v1/lds/en/search?q=faith+%26+works+~5&volume=newtestament"

With highlights and word frequency

curl "https://openscriptureapi.org/api/scriptures/v1/lds/en/search?q=faith&highlight=true&word_frequency=true&limit=3"

Highlight + frequency response

{
  "query": "faith",
  "total": 336,
  "limit": 3,
  "offset": 0,
  "results": [
    {
      "reference": "Alma 32:21",
      "book": "Alma",
      "chapter": 32,
      "verse": 21,
      "text": "And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge...",
      "highlight": "… said concerning faith—faith is not to have …"
    }
  ],
  "wordFrequency": [
    { "word": "faith", "count": 12 },
    { "word": "things", "count": 5 },
    { "word": "hope", "count": 4 }
  ]
}
Note: the Open Scripture API is still in beta, and these resources/endpoints can change at any time