JSword - Free Bible Study Software

JSword is a Java library for Bible study software, providing a rich API for accessing, searching, and displaying biblical texts and related resources. It is the engine behind a variety of Bible study applications, offering a flexible and extensible platform for developers and users alike.

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Overview

JSword aims to make the Bible and related texts freely available in a wide range of languages and translations. It supports a variety of modern and ancient Bible versions, commentaries, dictionaries, daily devotionals, and other resources.

JSword powers several open-source projects, including BibleDesktop and And Bible. The library is designed for cross-platform use and can be integrated into both desktop and mobile applications.

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Features

• Read and Search Bible Texts: Access a wide variety of Bibles, commentaries, dictionaries, and books in many languages.
• Advanced Search: Flexible searching by keywords, phrases, or passages, supporting Boolean logic and regular expressions.
• Internationalization (i18n): Supports multiple languages for both interface and content, including community-provided translations.
• Modular Design: Easily extendable to support new resource types or front-end applications.
• Sword Module Support: Reads and manages SWORD Project modules created by CrossWire and others.
• Strong’s Number Support: Lookup and cross-reference original language words.
• Daily Devotionals: Built-in support for reading devotionals by date.
• Open Source: Freely available under the LGPL license.

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Getting Started

Requirements

• Java 8
• Gradle (for building from source)

Building from Source

git clone https://github.com/crosswire/jsword.git
cd jsword
./gradlew build

Using JSword in Your Project

You can include JSword as a dependency via JitPack:

Gradle:

implementation 'com.github.crosswire:jsword:master-SNAPSHOT'

Or replace master-SNAPSHOT with a tagged release version.

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Documentation

• API Documentation (Javadoc)
• Project Homepage
• Module Repository
• Wiki & User Guides

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Example Usage

import org.crosswire.jsword.book.*;
import org.crosswire.jsword.passage.*;
import org.crosswire.jsword.versification.*;

Book bible = Books.installed().getBook("KJV");
Key key = bible.getKey("John 3:16");
BookData data = new BookData(bible, key);
String text = OSISUtil.getCanonicalText(data.getOsisFragment());
System.out.println(text);

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Contributing

We welcome contributions! See our Contributing Guide for more information.

• Bug Reports & Feature Requests: Please use GitHub Issues or CrossWire Tracker.
• Pull Requests: Fork the repo, create a branch, and submit a PR.

Internationalization (i18n) and Translations

JSword supports multiple languages for both interface and content. Community-provided translations—especially of Bible book names (BibleNames)—are maintained through Transifex.

Contribute a Translation

We welcome contributions to our translations!
If you would like to help translate Bible book names or other strings:

1. Visit our Transifex project page.
2. Sign up or log in to Transifex.
3. Request to join a language team or submit new translations.

Translations are integrated regularly to keep JSword multilingual.

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Community & Support

• CrossWire Forums
• Mailing Lists
• GitHub Discussions

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License

JSword is released under the LGPL 2.1 or later License.

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Acknowledgments

JSword is part of the CrossWire Bible Society family of open-source Bible software. Many thanks to all contributors and the wider community!

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For more information, visit the JSword Project Page.