Bible SuperSearch

Version 1.5


User's Guide

Version 1.5


www.BibleSuperSearch.com

www.Alive-in-Christ.com


Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life:

and they are they which testify of Me.

John 5:39


[T]hey received the word with all readiness of mind, and

searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

Acts 17:11


Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every

word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Matthew 4:4


[B]ut the word of God is not bound.

2 Timothy 2:9


Introduction


Bible SuperSearch is a free, easy-to-use, web based Bible search and passage retrieval program. It includes a powerful search engine, which can search the entire Bible, or at your option, search only the requested book(s), chapter(s) or passage reference(s). Bible SuperSearch can also look up multiple passage references at once, including complex references. Bible SuperSearch 1.0 includes the entire text of the Authorized King James Version Bible.


Bible SuperSearch was developed because of the belief that all Christian websites should have a Bible search and look up tool to encourage Bible literacy. With Bible SuperSearch, the webmaster does not need to waste time and money generating their own search engine, nor have to link to an outside search engine website that they do not necessarily agree with. Bible SuperSearch was designed to produce text that is easy to read, encouraging people to read more, and easy to copy with little editing required, making it easy to quickly get Bible text for sermons and articles. It was designed to be easy and intuitive to use; you don't have to be a Bible scholar or computer geek to use it.


Bible SuperSearch is open source, PHP and MySQL based software, and is freely available for Christian webmasters and web developers. If you would like to install Bible SuperSearch on your website, please check out the official Bible SuperSearch website at www.BibleSuperSearch.com for downloading information. Bible SuperSearch installation is easy with the included installer.

Searches


Basic Searches

Enter a word or words into the “Search” text box, and click "search". The search is equivalent to an exhaustive concordance; it will return ALL verses with the given word(s).


By default, the system will display all verses returned, and will search for verses with ALL the words entered. The searches are NOT case sensitive.


Search Options


Search Type

The search type is selected by the radio buttons or drop down menu, if applicable, on the form:


All Words

Searches for verses containing ALL of the words entered. (Default)

Any Word

Searches for verses containing ANY of the words entered

Exact Phrase

Searches for verses containing the exact phrase entered.

Boolean Search

Boolean search with parentheses support.

Allows you to specify advanced search queries using operators AND, OR, and NOT. Also allows grouping of terms with parenthesis (). See below for details.


Bible Version

The Bible version to search or look up passages can be selected from the “Bible” drop-down box. Bible SuperSearch will keep the selected version until you chose another. If only one Bible version is installed, the “Bible” drop down will be replaced by the name of the installed version.


Whole Words Only

Check “Whole words only” check box for searches for the exact word(s) only. Example: Searching for work does not return worked, works, worker or working.


Deselecting “Whole Words Only” will result in searches returning verses with words CONTAINING the requested words. Example: Searching for one returns one, bone, stone, alone, among other things. “Whole Words Only” is selected by default.


Seeing Verses in Context


You can easily see your search results in context by clicking on the VERSE reference for a particular verse. This will show the entire verse, plus two verses before it and two verses after it (in the same chapter.) Clicking on the Book and Chapter reference will show you the entire chapter for this verse.


Example, for Acts 4:12, clicking on “12” will give Acts 4:10-14; while clicking on “Acts 12” will give Acts chapter 12.


Since the search engine only displays the verses with the word(s) that you requested, this is a very useful feature to get the full meaning of a verse. This feature also works with all INDIVIDUAL verses that you look up (see below).



Boolean Searches


The Boolean search allows you to specify advanced search queries using operators AND, OR, and NOT. Also allows grouping of terms with parenthesis ( ).

A search term is defined as a word or phrase that is part of the search query.



The operators work similar to mathematical operators. Order of operations is followed. Operations are preformed starting at the innermost set of parentheses, progressing to the outermost set, then NOT, then AND, then OR.


Example: 'Jesus AND Lord OR Christ'

Returns verses with BOTH 'Jesus' AND 'Lord', and verses with 'Christ', and verses containing all three words, 'Jesus,' 'Lord,' and 'Christ'


Example:'Jesus OR Lord NOT Christ'

Returns verses with either 'Jesus' or 'Lord' or both 'Jesus' and 'Lord', but only those that do not contain the word 'Christ'


Phrases and Quotations


You can also use phrases, enclosed with double quotations (“”) with the Boolean search.


Example: ' “Lord Jesus” OR Christ

Returns verses with either “Lord Jesus” (exact phrase) or 'Christ' or both the phrase “Lord Jesus” and the word 'Christ' (not in any particular order.)


Parentheses


Search terms can be grouped using parentheses.


Example: '(Lord OR Christ) AND Jesus'

Returns verses with 'Jesus' and 'Lord or 'Jesus' and 'Christ' or 'Lord' and 'Christ' and 'Jesus'


More examples:

'(preserved OR stand) AND (word OR truth)'

'((Lord OR Christ) AND Jesus OR God) AND disciples



Implied AND


If an operator is not specified between terms, Bible SuperSearch interprets the query as if there was an AND between the terms.


Example: 'Jesus Lord OR Christ' interpreted as 'Jesus AND Lord OR Christ'

Example: '(Lord OR Christ) Jesus' interpreted as '(Lord OR Christ) AND Jesus'

Example: 'Jesus Lord Christ' interpreted as 'Jesus AND Lord AND Christ'


Operator Aliases


To make the Boolean search quicker to use, the following operator aliases have been developed. Any of these can be used in place of the operator, for the same results.


Operator

Alias #1

Alias #2

AND

*

&

OR

+

|

NOT

-

!=

(

[

{

)

]

}



Wildcard Searches


You may specify wildcard characters in your Boolean searches using the following characters.


% Unlimited characters

_ Single character (WARNING: NOT YET IMPLEMENTED!)


The unlimited characters wildcard allows for any amount of characters, while the single character wildcard only takes the place of one character.


Example: stand% returns stand, standing, standeth, standard

Example: %stand returns stand, understand.


For a detailed description of Boolean searches, please visit this link: http://www.internettutorials.net/boolean.html

This is an article on Internet Boolean searches, but the concept is the same. Please note that while the Bible SuperSearch Boolean search performs similarly to the searches described here, it may not function exactly as described.

Limiting Your Searches


Your searches can be limited to certain, predefined sections of the Bible by entering the following keywords in the “Look-up” textbox, or selecting them from the drop-down menu, if applicable. You may use either the name or any of the aliases. If one or more of the below limiters are not available in the drop-down menu, you may still use it by entering it into the look-up box.


(Note: submitting most of these shortcuts without a search will result in an error message because looking up multiple books at once will overload this server. Therefore, Bible SuperSearch will give an error. You must enter the EXACT WORD OR PHRASE as listed below.)


Name

Alias 1

Alias 2

Alias 3

Reference

Old Testament 

OT 

Tenakh 

Old 

Genesis - Malachi 

New Testament 

New 

NT 

New_Testament 

Matthew - Revelation 

Law 

OT Law 

Torah 

Moses 

Genesis - Deuteronomy 

History 

History 

 

 

Joshua - Esther 

Wisdom & Poetry 

Wisdom 

Poetry 

Wisdom and Poetry 

Job - Song of Solomon 

Prophets 

Prophets 

All Prophets 

 

Isaiah - Malachi 

Major Prophets 

Major_Prophets 

Major 

MajorProphets 

Isaiah - Daniel 

Minor Prophets 

Minor_Prophets 

Minor 

MinorProphets 

Hosea - Malachi 

Gospels 

Gosples 

Gospel 

Passion 

Matthew - John 

Epistles 

NT Epistles 

Doctrine 

All Epistles 

Romans - Jude 

Pauline Epistles 

Paul 

Pauline 

Pauline Epistles 

Romans - Hebrews 

General Epistles 

General 

General_Epistles 

Epistles General 

James - Jude 

End Times Prophecy 

Last Days 

End 

End Times 

Revelation; Daniel; Matthew 24 


Also see the “Custom Search Limitation” below.



Looking Up Passages


Basic Passage Retrieval

Enter the reference into the “passage” or “lookup” box, and click the “go” or “lookup” button. You may enter either the full name of the book, or any common abbreviation of it. You may also request whole chapters and books.


Example: Romans 8:2

Example: Rom 8:2

Example: Rom. 8:2 (with period)

Example: Ro. 8:2

Example: Jas 1:8 (James 1:8)

Example: James 3

Example: 2 Tim 2

Example: 2Tim

Example: Rev



Commas & Ranges


Multiple verses

You may request multiple verses from a chapter using commas and hyphens.


Example: Jas 1:1,2, 3

Example: Rom 1:2, 5:8

Example: Matt 1:1-3

Example: Rom 3:23, 6:23, 5:8, 10:9,13;

Example: Jn 1:1-3, 5,6, 8-10 (Chapter 1, verses 1-3, 5 and 6, and 8-10)


Note: You may include spaces with your commas and hyphens, but they are not required.


Multiple books or chapters

You may also request multiple chapters and books in the same way. However, you may only request multiple books in conjunction with a search. (See Custom Search Limitation below.)


Example: Rom 1, 3 (Chapters 1 and 3)

Example: Acts 2, 5-7 (Chapters 2 and 5 through 7)

Example: Mark-John

Example: Dan; Rev (Note, specifying individual books requires a semicolon (;), instead of a comma between the book names.)


Indefinite Ranges

You may request retrieval to the end of a chapter without knowing the number of the last verse by inserting a hyphen after the starting verse, but omitting the final verse.

Example: Phil 3:5- (Chapter 3, verses 5 through the end of the chapter)

Example: Titus 2:-10 (Chapter 2, verses 1 through 10)


Cross Chapter Lookup

You may look up verses across multiple chapters in the following manner:

Example: 1 Cor 4:8-5:2 (Chapter 4, verse 8 through chapter 5, verse 2)

Example: Dan 6:5-10:10 (Chapter 6, verse 5 through chapter 10, verse 10)


Starting and ending with a whole chapter.

If you want to start or end your request with a complete chapter, simply enter it with a colon but no verse reference like this:


Example: Rom 1:-2:5 (Chapter 1, verse 1 through chapter 2, verse 5)

Example: Acts 4:12-6: (Chapter 4, verse 12 through the end of chapter 6)


Whole chapter to whole chapter references:

Simply omit the verse reference and colon

Example: Mark 2-5

See also the “Multiple books or chapters” Section under “Commas and Ranges”


For convenience, the following entry methods will also work in the way they are noted below:


Example: Lk. 12-14:3 (Chapter 12, verse 1 through chapter 14, verse 3)

Example: Eph 1:8-3:- (Chapter 1, verse 8 through the end of chapter 3)


Note the following will NOT work as cross-chapter references:

Example: Gal 1:3-2 (interpreted as chapter 1, verses 3 through 2, will give error message)

Example: Ps 3:2-4 (will return chapter 3, verses 2-4)


Multiple Passages

To look up multiple passages, enter the separate references with a semicolon (“;”) between them. for You MUST use a semicolon, NOT a comma! You may add as few or as many spaces (before or after the semicolon) as you want.


Bible SuperSearch can handle complex requests with any combination of references in the forms listed above.


Example: 1 Tim 5:2; Rom. 5:8

Example: Romans 1:16;Acts 4:12; Ps 119:11; Rom 8:5-7

Example: Rom 3:23, 6:23, 5:8, 10:9,13; Eph 2:8,9; Acts 4:12; Jn 8:31-32,36


Other Features


Book number

You may look up references using the two digit number of the book instead of the name.

The books are numbered Genesis = 01, Exodus = 02 … Jude = 65, Revelation = 66. Note: The book number MUST be entered as a two digit number for it to work.


Example: 19 91 (Psalms 91)

Example: 01 1:1 (Genesis 1:1)

Custom Search Limitation


You may search any selection of Bible passages using the custom search limitation feature. To use, simply enter the passage references to be searched in the “look up” box, and your search terms in the “search” box, and click the “look up” or “search” button. You may enter any reference as given above.


Examples

look up: Heb 11

look up: 1 Cor 15

look up: Rom 3:23, 6:23, 5:8, 10:9-13; Jn 3:15-; Acts 4:12-25

search: faith

search: resurrection

search: saved


Browsing the Bible


You may easily move between adjacent chapters and books using the browsing buttons as shown below. (Buttons may not look exactly as shown below.)


|← Show Previous Book

← Show Previous Chapter (May give last chapter of previous book.)

↔ Show Entire Text of This Chapter (If only some of the chapter is shown.)

→ Show Next Chapter (May give first chapter of next book.)

→| Show Next Book


Editing Requests


If you made a mistake in entering your reference and/or search, or you would like to edit it for any other reason, you may do so by using the “Edit search” feature.


Just click on the “edit search”, “Edit Request” or “Edit” button (whichever is applicable), and your last passage request and/or search will appear in the request form. You may then edit them and repeat your request. You may also edit your search by clicking the text after “You requested:” (if applicable).


Note: This also sets the “search type” and “whole words only” to the settings you entered last, although the form does not show it.


Clearing the form.

To clear all passage and search entries from the form, click the “clear form” button (if applicable).






Bible SuperSearch is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.


This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.


Help support the Bible SuperSearch project, and download the latest version -

Visit www.BibleSuperSearch.com today!

Bible SuperSearch is a ministry of Alive in Christ. www.Alive-in-Christ.com


Appendix A: Future Version Functionality

This is not a guarantee that any or all of the following will be implemented in a future version of Bible SuperSearch. These are just suggestions that will be considered.