io.github.nirajagarwal/bible-mcp

Measured conclusion: Deep-tested. L2 outcome: tools_ok.

Bible corpus MCP server: scripture, Greek/Hebrew interlinear data, cross-refs, semantic search.

Add to your agent

Copy this into your MCP client config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "bible-mcp": {
      "url": "https://bible-mcp-server.fly.dev/mcp",
      "transport": "streamable-http"
    }
  }
}

Measured tools (16)

• get_passage

  Get Bible text for a reference like 'John 3:16', 'John 3:16-18', 'Genesis 1', or 'Tobit 4:5' (Apocrypha requires version='WEB'). Versions: BSB, WEB.

  Parameters:

  • reference (required) — string
  • version — string

  Hints: read-only not declared · destructive not declared · idempotent not declared · open-world not declared

• search

  Full-text search (stemmed, ranked). Supports phrases in quotes, AND/OR/NOT, e.g. 'living water', 'faith AND works NOT law'. Optional book filter e.g. 'Psalms'. NOTE: porter stemming conflates related surface forms — 'desert' also matches 'deserted' and 'deserts' (as merits) in prose layers; quote exact phrases or add AND-terms to disambiguate.

  Parameters:

  • query (required) — string
  • book — string
  • limit — integer
  • version — string

  Hints: read-only not declared · destructive not declared · idempotent not declared · open-world not declared

• get_cross_references

  Cross-references for a verse (OpenBible.info, ranked by community votes), with the target text included. E.g. reference='Romans 5:12'.

  Parameters:

  • reference (required) — string
  • limit — integer

  Hints: read-only not declared · destructive not declared · idempotent not declared · open-world not declared

• get_entity

  Look up a biblical person, place, event, or people group by name (Theographic knowledge graph). Returns details and where they appear. entity_type optional: person | place | event | people_group.

  Parameters:

  • name (required) — string
  • entity_type — string

  Hints: read-only not declared · destructive not declared · idempotent not declared · open-world not declared

• entities_in_passage

  List the people, places, and events linked to a verse or chapter, e.g. 'Genesis 14' or 'John 3:16'.

  Parameters:

  • reference (required) — string

  Hints: read-only not declared · destructive not declared · idempotent not declared · open-world not declared

• get_concept

  Look up a theological concept or lexical keyword in the OT+NT concept graph (5,673 nodes seeded from Easton's Bible Dictionary — see DESIGN.md #5). Returns its definition (with a pointer to the full Easton entry), verse anchors, and entities that instantiate it (e.g. Abraham for Covenant). concept_type optional: theme | keyword. A Strong's number ('G225') also resolves directly to its keyword node. For typed relations to OTHER concepts (broader/narrower/ causes/part_of/symbol_of/fulfills/associated), use get_concept_relations(name).

  Parameters:

  • name (required) — string
  • concept_type — string

  Hints: read-only not declared · destructive not declared · idempotent not declared · open-world not declared

• concepts_in_passage

  List theological concepts and lexical keywords linked to a verse or chapter via the OT+NT concept graph (seeded from Easton's Bible Dictionary), e.g. 'Genesis 14' or 'John 3:16'. Complements entities_in_passage (people/places/ events) with abstract themes and keyword nodes.

  Parameters:

  • reference (required) — string

  Hints: read-only not declared · destructive not declared · idempotent not declared · open-world not declared

• get_concept_relations

  Typed relations for a concept in the OT+NT concept graph: broader/narrower (taxonomy), causes, part_of, symbol_of, fulfills, contrasts — ~430 edges, hand-reviewed against cited evidence (Phase 5/6, weight>=10 only, see DESIGN.md #5). Excludes the much larger 'associated' fallback tier by default (~139,000 mechanical shared-evidence edges, unreviewed) — pass verb='associated' to include it. verb optional: restrict to one verb (broader | narrower | causes | part_of | symbol_of | fulfills | contrasts | associated).

  Parameters:

  • name (required) — string
  • verb — string
  • limit — integer

  Hints: read-only not declared · destructive not declared · idempotent not declared · open-world not declared

• compare_versions

  Show a verse or short range in both BSB and WEB side by side.

  Parameters:

  • reference (required) — string

  Hints: read-only not declared · destructive not declared · idempotent not declared · open-world not declared

• word_study

  Original-language word study across the whole Bible. Query by Strong's number ('G26', 'H2617', zero-padding optional — 'H953' works), lemma (pointed or unpointed: 'חֶסֶד' or 'חסד', accented or bare Greek), Hebrew/Aramaic transliteration ('miqweh' finds מִקְוֶה, macrons optional), or English gloss ('lovingkindness'). Returns occurrence counts, gloss range, book distribution, a full scholarly lexicon entry for the top-matching word (BDB and/or Strong's for Hebrew/Aramaic, Abbott-Smith for Greek, when available — richer than the gloss, truncated to ~700 chars), and sample verses. NOTE: homographs are split by letter-suffixed Strong's variants (e.g. H4723 'hope' vs H4723a 'gathering of waters' — same written form) — when a gloss range looks too narrow for a word you suspect is richer, probe the lettered variants; the output lists every variant lemma it finds under your query. Gloss-keyed queries match substrings and may conflate lemmas — prefer Strong's or lemma queries for exact counts. language optional: grc | hbo | arc.

  Parameters:

  • query (required) — string
  • limit — integer
  • language — string

  Hints: read-only not declared · destructive not declared · idempotent not declared · open-world not declared

• get_interlinear

  Word-by-word original language for a verse or short range: surface form, lemma, Strong's, gloss, morphology (Hebrew/Aramaic OT, Greek NT). For OT verses also shows Septuagint Greek surface text where available (Swete edition — Genesis-Malachi plus Apocrypha, Theodotion Daniel/Susanna/Bel; no lemma/Strong's/ morphology in that source, surface form only). E.g. 'John 1:1' or 'Genesis 1:1-3'.

  Parameters:

  • reference (required) — string

  Hints: read-only not declared · destructive not declared · idempotent not declared · open-world not declared

• read_work

  Read a prose work from the corpus by paragraph range. Works: CONFESSIONS (Augustine), IMITATION (à Kempis), PILGRIM (Bunyan), PRESENCE (Brother Lawrence), JULIAN (Julian of Norwich), ORTHODOXY (Chesterton), 1CLEMENT (Clement of Rome), BARNABAS (Epistle of Barnabas). Chapters = books/chapters of the work; use search(version=<WORK>) to find passages first, or corpus_info() for the full list.

  Parameters:

  • work (required) — string
  • end — integer
  • start — integer
  • chapter — integer

  Hints: read-only not declared · destructive not declared · idempotent not declared · open-world not declared

• semantic_search

  Meaning-based search across the whole corpus — scripture AND prose works — using embeddings, optionally fused with keyword search (hybrid, recommended). Finds passages about a theme even with no shared words, e.g. 'divine self-emptying', 'the soul's dark night'. kind optional: verse | window | paragraph.

  Parameters:

  • query (required) — string
  • kind — string
  • top_k — integer
  • hybrid — boolean

  Hints: read-only not declared · destructive not declared · idempotent not declared · open-world not declared

• find_similar

  Find passages semantically similar to a given verse or prose paragraph ref — across scripture, Apocrypha, and the classics. E.g. 'Philippians 2:7' or 'JULIAN.27.2'. Powers parallel-finding across corpus layers.

  Parameters:

  • reference (required) — string
  • top_k — integer

  Hints: read-only not declared · destructive not declared · idempotent not declared · open-world not declared

• get_citations

  Where a Bible verse is cited by name in the patristic corpus, extracted from the translators' own footnotes (tier 1). E.g. reference='Ephesians 5:21'. Complements get_cross_references, which links scripture to scripture; this links patristic text to scripture. COVERAGE NOTE: footnote extraction has known recall gaps — an empty result is normal and does NOT mean the verse is uncited; full-text `search` within the patristic works is the thorough probe (verbatim quotations are regularly found that the footnote index missed).

  Parameters:

  • reference (required) — string
  • limit — integer

  Hints: read-only not declared · destructive not declared · idempotent not declared · open-world not declared

• corpus_info

  What's in the corpus: documents, layers, licenses, and counts.

  Hints: read-only not declared · destructive not declared · idempotent not declared · open-world not declared

Repository

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