Use /api/cross-references to retrieve thematically related verse coordinates
ranked by attestation weight — version-agnostic canonical output ready for any translation.
Results are canonical coordinates with no verse text. Pass the returned reference field to /api/passage to retrieve text in any translation — or use verse_id for direct lookup when chaining API responses. This keeps the cross-reference graph version-agnostic.
Pass a reference to look up. Results are sorted by weight descending — strongest connection first.
curl --get https://holybible.dev/api/cross-references \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
--data-urlencode reference="John 3:16" \
--data-urlencode limit=3Ranked by attestation weight, strongest first. Each row is a canonical coordinate:
{
"status": "success",
"from_index": 26137,
"results_count": 3,
"data": [
{
"verse_index": 28056,
"verse_id": 45005008,
"book": { "id": 45, "name": "Romans" },
"chapter": 5, "verse": 8,
"reference": "Romans 5:8",
"osis_id": "Rom.5.8",
"weight": 954,
"strength": "very_high"
},
{
"verse_index": 28149,
"verse_id": 45008032,
"book": { "id": 45, "name": "Romans" },
"chapter": 8, "verse": 32,
"reference": "Romans 8:32",
"osis_id": "Rom.8.32",
"weight": 488,
"strength": "very_high"
},
{
"verse_index": 26136,
"verse_id": 43003015,
"book": { "id": 43, "name": "John" },
"chapter": 3, "verse": 15,
"reference": "John 3:15",
"osis_id": "John.3.15",
"weight": 483,
"strength": "very_high"
}
]
}Use strength for display logic. Use min_weight to filter by threshold:
| strength | weight range | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| very_high | 301+ | Exceptionally strong — rare, highly attested across theological tradition |
| high | 101–300 | Strong — well-attested, suitable for prominent display |
| medium | 51–100 | Moderate — relevant but less definitive |
| low | 1–50 | Weak — topically related but loosely attested |
Cross-reference results include a reference field. Pass it directly to /api/passage to retrieve text in any translation — no parsing needed:
curl --get https://holybible.dev/api/passage \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
--data-urlencode reference="Romans 5:8" \
--data version=KJVAdvanced: When building pipelines or chaining API responses, you can pass verse_id directly for a fast structured lookup — e.g. --data verse_id=45005008. For most use cases, prefer reference.
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