Bible Translation Maker

A Python package to find Bible verses and get Bible verses — 98 translations across 39 languages, with an offline catalog and on-demand downloads.

Build an API server, a local GUI, or a terminal UI on top of one shared library:

import btm

print(btm.get_verse("John 3:16").text)
print(btm.get_passage("Ps 23:1-3", translation="LSG").text)   # French Louis Segond
print(btm.get_verse("John 3:16", translation="KOUGO").text)   # Japanese Colloquial

for hit in btm.find("everlasting", translation="KJV", limit=5):
    print(hit.reference, "-", hit.text)

Installation

Requires Python 3.10+.

pip install bible_translation_finder

From source:

git clone https://github.com/Jemo69/bible_translation_finder.git
cd bible_translation_finder
pip install -e ".[dev]"  # or: uv sync

Library usage

import btm

# One-shot lookups (first call downloads + caches the translation)
verse = btm.get_verse("John 3:16-17")          # first verse of the range
passage = btm.get_passage("1 Cor 13:4-7", translation="WEB")
chapter = btm.get_chapter("Genesis", 1, translation="LUT1912")
hits = btm.find("shepherd", translation="KJV", limit=10)  # btm.search works too

# Hold a translation open for repeated queries (best for servers)
bible = btm.load("KJV")
bible.get_verse("John", 3, 16).text
bible.search("grace", books=["Romans", "Ephesians"])

# Browse the catalog offline — no network needed
btm.find_translations("japanese")              # KOUGO, SHINKAI, JFB
btm.find_translations(language="Korean")
btm.list_translations(include_copyrighted=False)

References accept full names and abbreviations ("Gen 1:1", "Ps 23", "1 Cor 13:4-7", "Jude").

Where data lives

Downloads are cached as OpenSong XML in ~/.local/share/bible-translation-finder (override with the BTM_DATA_DIR env var or btm.load("KJV", data_dir=...)). Any device with this package regenerates the same files on first use — the output/ directory is just a local cache and is not part of the repo.

CLI usage

btm list                       # freely available translations
btm list --all                 # include copyrighted stubs
btm search japanese            # local catalog + eBible.org
btm get "John 3:16" -t KJV     # look up a passage (downloads on first use)
btm find love -t WEB --limit 5 # search verse text
btm download KJV -o ./output   # fetch + convert one translation
btm batch --ids KJV,WEB,LSG    # fetch several at once

Translations

98 entries across 39 languages, including:

Sources: open-bibles (OSIS/Zefania/USFX), eBible.org (USFX, all entries marked redistributable there), bible.com (* personal-use scraping).

Need one of the 1,500+ eBible.org translations not listed here? Every catalog entry follows the same https://eBible.org/Scriptures/{id}_usfx.zip pattern:

from btm.library import Library
from btm.bible import Bible
import requests, zipfile, io
from btm import converter

tid = "swhonen"  # any eBible.org translationId
raw = requests.get(f"https://eBible.org/Scriptures/{tid}_usfx.zip", timeout=120).content
name = [n for n in zipfile.ZipFile(io.BytesIO(raw)).namelist() if n.endswith("_usfx.xml")][0]
xml = zipfile.ZipFile(io.BytesIO(raw)).read(name).decode("utf-8")
bible = Bible.from_opensong_xml(converter.convert_to_opensong(xml, "usfx"), translation=tid)
print(bible.get_verse("John", 3, 16).text)

License

Code is MIT (see LICENSE). Bible texts belong to their respective copyright holders — see each translation's copyright field and respect its terms. NIV/TPT downloads via bible.com are for personal use only; ESV/NLT/NKJV/CSB/NASB/NRSV ship as stub files only.