Refspy is a Python package for working with Bible references in human-written text.

README

• eukras/refspy on Github | Report Issue | Contact Author
• refspy on PyPI → pip install refspy.
• INTERNALS.md | refspy on ReadTheDocs → See docs/ dir.
• CHANGES.md | TODO.md

Online Demonstration

Bible Rocket is an online demonstration of most of the features of the refspy package. It will match, link, and index Bible references in human-written text.

Online Demonstration	Example of Distribution Graph

Multi-language Demonstration

The script demo.py will generate files like demo/en_US.html for all languages, which are used to make the following screenshots.

en_US (@eukras)	fr_FR (@a2ohm)

Features

• Match international and European syntaxes (Matt 5:3,7-9 / Matt 5,3.7-9).
• Use contextual book references to interpret partial references (e.g. "in Romans see 5:4").
• Sequentially replace matched references.
• Compile indexes of all matched references, or all verse ranges covered; list the most referenced chapters (hotspots) in a list of references.
• Format references as names, abbreviated names, and URL parameters.
• Generate HTML links of any required format.
• Construct and manipulate verses, ranges, and references.
• Compare and sort verses, ranges, and references.
• Collate references by library and book for iteration.
• Test if references or ranges contain, overlap, or adjoin one another; merge overlapping references and join adjacent ones.
• Store verses as UNSIGNED INT(12) for database indexing.
• Generally follow established conventions, so SBL style and SBL/USFM book names in English.

Not implemented:

• Old style references: Rev. 2 and 3, Matt. 28. 20; Acts 1. 8, 2 Cor. 9. 1-12 (1930s). Matt. xxv. 46. Dan. xii. 2. 2 Thes. i. 7-10. Ephes. iv. 18 (1790s).

HOWTO

The Reference Manager

Initialising refspy with corpus and language names will return a reference manager. This provides a single convenient interface for the whole library. By default, refspy provides a Protestant canon in English.

from refspy import refspy
__ = refspy()

Or, to create specific canons:

from refspy.languages.english import ENGLISH
from refspy.languages.french import FRENCH
from refspy.libraries.en_US import DC, DC_ORTHODOX, NT, OT
from refspy.libraries.fr_FR import DC as DC_FR, NT as NT_FR, OT as OT_FR
from refspy.manager import Manager

# Protestant, equivalent to `refspy()`
__ = refspy('protestant', 'en_US')
__ = Manager(libraries=[OT, NT], language=ENGLISH)

# Catholic
__ = refspy('catholic', 'fr_FR')
__ = Manager(libraries=[OT_FR, DC_FR, NT_FR], language=FRENCH)

# Orthodox
__ = refspy('orthodox', 'en_US')
__ = Manager(libraries=[OT, DC, DC_ORTHODOX, NT], language=ENGLISH)

Additionally, a third argument can specify International or European syntax for references, that is, whether to write Matt 5:3,7-9 or Matt 5,3.7-9. If not argument is given, the default syntax for the specified language will be used.

The file refspy/setup.py shows valid names for libraries and languages. There's only English initially. The en_US libraries conform to the SBL Style Guide for book names and abbreviations. Other libraries can be defined and added locally following the structure in refspy.libraries.en_US. If they follow established academic usage where possible, please contribute them to the project.

Creating references

Shortcut functions can create simple references using any book name, abbreviation, or alias in the libraries list. Firstly, we can create references from strings:

ref = __.r('Rom 2:6,9,1,2')

We can construct references more programmatically with __.bcv():

assert __.name(__.bcv('Rom')) == 'Romans'
assert __.name(__.bcv('Rom', 2)) == 'Romans 2'
assert __.name(__.bcv('Rom', 2, 2)) == 'Romans 2:2'
assert __.name(__.bcv('Rom', 2, 2, 3)) == 'Romans 2:2-3'

Or __.bcr() to specify book, chapter and verse ranges:

assert __.name(__.bcr('Rom', 2, [(2, 3), 7])) == "Romans 2:2-3,7"

Options

Both refspy() and refspy.matcher.Matcher() take the following optional argument, which modify this usage. To obtain more fine-grained control of aliasing, make your own copy of refspy.libraries.en_US and use it with Manager(libraries=[MY_LIB]).

include_two_letter_aliases=True (default: True)

Allow two-letter book aliases to be matched: e.g. Ge for Genesis or 1 Ti for First Timothy. Note short names given as abbrevs (like Ps) will not be filtered like aliases are. Aliases (e.g. Is, Am) that are also common words will be only be matched as part of references (So Am 3:1 but not Am); the list of ambiguous_aliases for a language is supplied in the language file, e.g. refspy/languages/english.py.

from refspy import refspy
__ = refspy(include_two_letter_aliases=True)
match, ref = __.first_reference('2Ti 1')
assert ref == __.bcv('2 Tim', 1)

Formatting references

ref = __.r('Rom 2:3-4,7')

assert __.name(ref) == 'Romans 2:3–4, 7'
assert __.book(ref) == 'Romans'
assert __.numbers(ref) == '2:3–4, 7'
assert __.abbrev_name(ref) == 'Rom 2:3–4, 7'
assert __.abbrev_book(ref) == 'Rom'
assert __.abbrev_numbers(ref) == '2:3–4, 7'

Some utility functions can be used to turn these into usable URL parameters if needed:

from refspy.utils import url_param, url_escape

ref = __.r('2 Cor 3:4-5')
assert url_param(__.abbrev_name(ref)) == '2+cor+3.4-5'
assert url_escape(__.abbrev_name(ref)) == '2%20Cor%203%3A4-5'

In general, though, templating is a better way to make links.

Templating references

bible_gateway = (
    '<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/'
  + '?search={LINK}&version=NRSVA">'
  + '{NAME}'
  + '</a>'
)
ref = __.r('2 Cor 3:4-5')
link = __.template(reference, bible_gateway)

assert link.find('2%20Cor%203%3A4-5') > 0
assert link.find('2 Corinthians 3:4–5') > 0

The full list of template fields is:

The {LINK} field is like {ESC_ABBREV_NAME}, but will use English-style verse formatting with any language, which suits linking to sites like Bible Gateway.

Templates can be passed as optional arguments to other rendering functions, say to generate links within indexes.

__.make_index(references, template=bible_gateway)

Comparing references

A reference can be a set of any valid verses and verse ranges spread across multiple books or even libraries.

rom_2 = __.r('Rom 2')
rom_4 = __.r('Rom 4')
rom_4a = __.bc('rom', 4)

assert rom_2 < rom_4
assert not rom_2 >= rom_4
assert rom_4 == rom_4a

Because references can be compared using the < operator, they can also be sorted without any special functions, and used in min() and max().

assert __.sort_references([rom_4, rom_2]) == [rom_2, rom_4]
assert sorted([rom_4, rom_2]) == [rom_2, rom_4]  # <-- Same
assert min([rom_4, rom_2]) == rom_2

Contains, Overlaps, Adjoins

We will commonly want to know if one reference contains(), or overlaps() another. The adjoins() function works out adjacency for chapters and verses, but note it is limited by not knowing the lengths of chapters.

gen1 = __.r('Gen 1')
gen2 = __.r('Gen 2')
gen1_22_23 = __.r('Gen 1:22-23')
gen1_24_28 = __.r('Gen 1:24-28')

assert gen1.contains(gen1_22_23)
assert gen1_22_23.overlaps(gen1)
assert gen1_22_23.adjoins(gen1_24_28)
assert gen1.adjoins(gen2)
assert not gen1.overlaps(gen2)

Sort, Merge, and Combine

References can be simplified by merging overlapping ranges and combining those that are adjacent.

assert __.merge_references([gen1_22_23, gen1]) == gen1
assert __.combine_references([gen1, gen2]) == __.r('Gen 1-2')
assert __.combine_references([gen1_22_23, gen1_24_28]) == __.r('Gen 1:22-28')

Under the hood, these methods just join the range lists together and merge or combine them into a new reference. (Note the * operator to unpack lists into arguments for reference().)

from refspy.range import merge_ranges, combine_ranges

assert reference(*merge_ranges(ranges)) == __.merge_references([reference(*ranges)])
assert reference(*combine_ranges(ranges)) == __.combine_references([reference(*ranges)])

Manipulating references

Among other transformations, references can be turned into their (first) book objects or references to just their books or chapters.

ref1 = __.ref('Rom 2:3-4,7')

assert __.get_book(ref1).chapters == 16
assert __.name(ref1.book_reference()) == 'Romans'
assert __.name(ref1.chapter_reference()) == 'Romans 2'

Navigating references

assert __.next_chapter(rom_2) == rom_3
assert __.prev_chapter(rom_2) == rom_1
assert __.prev_chapter(rom_1) == acts_28
assert __.prev_chapter(matt_1) is None

To create chapter references:

from refspy.libraries.en_US import NT

nt_chapter_refs_ = [
  __.bcv(book.name, ch)
  for ch in range(1, book.chapters)
  for book in NT.books
]

Matching references in text

To find references in text and print HTML links for them:

url = 'https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=%s&version=NRSVA"

text = "Rom 1; 1 Cor 8:3,4; Rev 22:3-4"

strs, refs = __.find_references(text)
for match_str, ref in zip(strs, refs):
   print(f"{match_str} -> {url % __.param(ref)}")

Replacing references in text

To produce the demo image above, we can use the sequential_replace function from refspy/utils:

from refspy.utils import sequential_replace

strs, tags = [], []
for match_str, ref in __.find_references(text,
                                         include_books=True,
                                         include_nones=True):
    strs.append(match_str)
    if ref is None: # purple
          tags.append(f'<span class="refspy-invalid-reference">{match_str}</span>')
    elif ref.is_book(): # yellow
        tags.append(f'<span class="refspy-contextual-reference">{match_str}</span>')
    else: # green
        tags.append(
            f'<span class="refspy-reference">{match_str}</span><sup>{__.abbrev_name(ref)}</sup>'
        )
html = sequential_replace(text, strs, tags)}

Collating and Indexing

To produce the index for the demo image above:

matches = __.find_references(text)

index = []
for library, book_collation in __.collate(
    sorted([ref for _, ref in matches])
):
    for book, reference_list in book_collation:
        new_reference = __.merge(reference_list)
        index.append(__.abbrev(new_reference))

html_list = "; ".join(index)