Versemark
Bible API · v1 · 186,614 verses

In the
beginning was
the API.

Versemark is a Bible API for developers: six public-domain translations, concept search, 341k cross-references, and a JSON shape you'll actually enjoy parsing. No ceremony, no churchy chrome.

Get a key Read the docs
request
# John 3:16 in the King James Version curl "https://versemark.dev/api/v1/bibles/kjv/John/3/16" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $VERSEMARK_KEY"
response
{ "data": { "translation": "kjv", "book": "John", "chapter": 3, "verse": 16, "reference": "John 3:16", "text": "For God so loved the world..." } }
The reference field is friendly for display. The book/chapter/verse fields are friendly for storage. You don't have to choose.
i. the canon
186,614
verses indexed
6
translations
~23ms
FTS search
100/min
free tier
ii. translations

Six
public-domain
translations.

From the King James (1611) to the New Heart English (2010). Every verse cleaned, normalized, and queryable in milliseconds.

Modern translations like NIV and NLT are copyrighted. We ship only what we can ship cleanly.
01
kjv
1611
King James Version
31,102 verses
02
ylt
1862
Young's Literal Translation
31,102 verses
03
darby
1889
Darby Bible
31,102 verses
04
asv
1901
American Standard Version
31,102 verses
05
web
2000
World English Bible
31,102 verses
06
nheb
2010
New Heart English Bible
31,104 verses
§

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2The same was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

John 1:1–3 · KJV

iii. endpoints

Three things you'll do all the time.

i. a verse
GET /v1/bibles/{code}/{book}/{ch}/{v}
/v1/bibles/kjv/John/3/16

A single verse, with book name, reference, and text: already formatted for display.

ii. a chapter
GET /v1/bibles/{code}/{book}/{ch}
/v1/bibles/asv/Ps/23

Every verse in a chapter, in order, with a verse_count. Great for reading-plan apps and devotionals.

iii. search
GET /v1/search?q={query}
/v1/search?q=shepherd&translation=kjv

FTS5-backed full-text search with porter stemming and relevance ranking. "loved" finds "love".

iv. colophon

Edited like a manuscript, served like an API. Every {…} footnote stripped, every "AndGod" pulled apart, every byte cached at the edge.

i. clean

3,681 missing-space concatenations fixed in Darby alone. Editorial annotations stripped from WEB. Whitespace normalized everywhere.

ii. fast

SQLite FTS5 with porter stemming on 186k verses. Mean search: 23ms. The text never changes: caches stay warm.

iii. honest

Public-domain only. The licensed translations get added when (and if) the math works out. We won't fake it.

Start building.

One signup, one key, three endpoints. No credit card.