Bible Word Search vs. Bible Passage Search

When searching the Bible on Christianity.com, you may enter either a Bible Passage reference, such as Psalm 23, or a Bible Word Search, such as love one another. This page discusses performing a Bible Word Search. If you wish to learn about a Bible Passage Search, please see the help section about the Basics of a Bible Passage Search.

Choosing Keywords

The Christianity.com Bible Word Search finds verses that contain all of the words you enter. Therefore, it is important to select keywords wisely. Keep these tips in mind:

• Choose words that are in the Bible. For example, searching for rapture won’t return any results, because “rapture” is not in the Bible. However, searching for last day will return relevant verses.
• Use words that are likely to be the verse(s) you’re trying to find. For example, instead of searching for how to be patient with my parents, try patient or patience

• Select words that are actually used in the translation you’re searching. If you’re using an older translation, such as the King James Version or the American Standard Version, try using “thee” instead of “you”. For example, try I will praise thee Lord instead of I will praise you Lord.

Beacuse we return only verses that contain all of the keywords you enter, narrowing or broadening your search is as simple as adding or removing keywords.

Choosing a Translation

Many common Bible passages use slightly different words in each translation. Therefore, be sure to select a translation that will have the words that you are searching for. For example, if you’re using a modern translation, such as the World English Bible, search for believe instead of believeth.

Exact Phrases

Search for an exact phrase by placing quotation marks around it. For example, “love the Lord” will find verses where the words “love,” “the,” and “Lord” appear together exactly as you have entered them. Searching for “love the Lord” as a phrase will return much better results than searching for love the Lord as three individual words.

Capitalization

Searches are NOT case sensitive. Thus, searching for love will return the same results as LOVE and Love.

Word Variations (Stemming)

By default, each search word is considered a “stem.” In other words, searching for fear will return verses containing fearful, feared, fearing, fearless, etc. However, using the Match option of the Advanced Bible Search or by editing your Bible Search Preferences, you may choose to return verses containing the exact word only.

Search Results

The verses are shown in the order that they appear in the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, etc.

Changing Translation

When viewing the results of your Bible Word Search, you may easily switch translations using the “Search Again” form at the top or bottom of the page. Just click on the translation dropdown menu to the left of the “Search” button to select the Bible version you wish to use.

Searching Again

To search the Bible again, enter your search terms into the “Search Again” form at the top or bottom of the Bible Word Search Results. Then click Search.

Limiting Your Search

The Limit My Search To box permits you to easily limit what book(s) your search covers. This can be helpful when trying to narrow down your results. Limit My Search will be displayed when either: (a) More than fifty results are returned, or (b) The user is currently limiting his or her search.