bible-ref-py

bible-ref-py is a Python 2 and Python 3 compatible package and regular expression library for validating, extracting and normalizing biblical references from texts.

bible-ref-py is built by Beatitud developers, on top of python-scriptures library, initially implemented by David Davis (Copyright (c) 2010-2015).

Typical usage is as follows:

from scriptures.text import Text
string = "Le service est le billet à présenter à l’entrée des noces éternelles. Ce qui reste de la vie au seuil de l’éternité, ce n’est pas ce que nous avons gagné, mais ce que nous avons donné (cf. Mt 6, 19-21 ; 1Co 13, 8)"
text = Text(string, language='fr', canon='catholic')
text.extract_refs(guess=True)
# [<Ref(Matthieu 6:19-21)>, <Ref(I Corinthiens 13:8)>]

Range validation is performed automatically and invalid references are not extracted.

from scriptures.reference import Reference
Reference(book='Rom', chapter=2, verse=30).is_valid()
# False
Reference(book='Rom', chapter=3, verse=23).is_valid()
# True

Single verse number references can be guessed, according to three rules:

• If there is a complete reference in the same sentence, before, we suppose the single verse refers to the same books and chapters than this complete reference
• Else, if there is a complete reference in the same paragraph, before, we suppose the single verse refers to the same books and chapters than this complete reference
• Else, if there is a complete reference in the text, in the previous paragraphs, we suppose the single verse refers to those books and chapters

from scriptures.text import Text
string = "Les disciples « sortirent à la rencontre de l’époux » (Mt 25, 1). Puis : « Voici l’époux, sortez à sa rencontre ! » (v. 6)." 
text = Text(string, language='fr', canon='catholic')
text.extract_refs(guess=True)
# [<Ref(Matthieu 25:1)>, <Ref(Matthieu 25:6)>]

Installation

To install, simply run the script with the install command:

$ pip install beatitud-scriptures

Or just put the scriptures package somewhere on the Python path.

API

Return Values

When a "scripture reference" is returned, it is always an object with five attributes consisting of:

• book
• chapter
• verse
• end_chapter
• end_verse

from scriptures.reference import Reference
ref = Reference(book='Rom', chapter=2, verse=30)
print(ref.book)
# Romans
print(ref.chapter)
# 2

Regular Expressions

There are two compiled regular expression patterns exposed by this package.

book_re

Match a valid abbreviation or book name.

Examples:

from scriptures.canons import get_canon
import re
canon = get_canon(name="catholic")
re.findall(canon.book_re, 'Matt test Ecclesiastes and 2 peter')
# ['Matt', 'Ecclesiastes', '2 peter']    

scripture_re

Match a scripture reference pattern from a valid abbreviation or book name.

Examples:

from scriptures.text import Text
import re
txt = Text("", language="en", canon="catholic")
re.findall(txt.scripture_re, 'Matt 3 & Acts 1:2-3 Rev 2:1-3:2')
# [('Matt', '3', '', '', ''), ('Acts', '1', '2', '', '3'),
# ('Rev', '2', '1', '3', '2')]

Canons

This library currently provides the following canons:

• catholic - scriptures.canons.catholic.Canon
• protestant - scriptures.canons.protestant.Canon
• deuterocanon - scriptures.canons.deutercanon.Canon
• kjv1611 - scriptures.canons.kjv1611.Canon

Usage

To use the additional texts, simply instantiate the text object and use the api functions and regular expressions on the new instance.

Example

from scriptures.canons.catholic import Canon
cc = Canon(language='en')
print(cc.books)
# {'gn': {
#                'en': ('Genesis', 'Gen', 'Gen(?:esis)?'),
#                'fr': ('Genèse', 'Gn', 'Gen(?:èse)?'),
#                'chapters':
#                    [31, 25, 24, 26, 32, 22, 24, 22, 29, 32, 32, 20, 18, 24, 21, 16, 27, 33, 38, 18, 34, 24, 20, 67, 34, 35,
#                     46, 22, 35, 43, 55, 32, 20, 31, 29, 43, 36, 30, 23, 23, 57, 38, 34, 34, 28, 34, 31, 22, 33, 26]
#  },
#  ...}

Custom Canons

The library makes makes extending the library through custom texts trivial through additional modules. Please consider contributing your text modules to this project by creating canons under scriptures/canons/ and submitting a pull request.

Creating a New Canon

To create a new Canon,

1. Create a class that inherits from scriptures.base.CanonBase
2. Implement the "books" dictionary
3. Instantiate your new canon and use it

Test Suite

Unit tests are provided to verify chapter and verse style normalization, output formatting, and book names and abbreviations.

To run the test suite, cwd to just outside of the scriptures package and:

$ python -m unittest discover