Cross-References Data

Phrase-level Bible cross-references exported from CrossReferences.org.

This dataset is derived from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (originally anchored to KJV phrasing) and restructures it so that each translation has its own anchor phrases mapped to its own text and versification.

Important Note

This is a work in progress. The mapping to new translations are complete. A second pass remains to be done to improve the quality of the mappings. See Report for details.

On Curation

The reference set is not a verbatim copy of TSK. References are added, split, merged, or removed where doing so serves the reader. Such changes are deliberate and conservative (currently well under 1% of the set) and are expected to grow modestly as the project matures.

The aim is to improve the connections themselves, not to pile more references onto every verse. References are removed when they make more sense in the other direction, or when they depend on KJV phrasing that doesn't carry into other translations. A shorter, sounder list serves the reader better — and following the references onward, from verse to verse, recovers the wider picture when it is wanted. Have a look at this experiment to see what becomes possible.

Format

Each translation has a single TSV file with five columns:

Column	Description
book	Book abbreviation in the translation's language
chapter	Chapter number
verse	Verse number
anchor	The phrase in the verse that the cross-references are anchored to
references	Target references, separated by |

Example (s21/crossreferences_s21.tsv):

Gn	1	1	Au commencement	Pr 8:22-24|Pr 16:4|Mc 13:19|Jn 1:1-3|Hé 1:10|1 Jn 1:1
Gn	1	1	Dieu créa	Ps 33:6|Ps 136:5|Ac 17:24

Parser

parse_crossreferences.py is a standalone Python script (no dependencies) that parses the TSV files into structured data:

from parse_crossreferences import parse_file

for entry in parse_file('s21/crossreferences_s21.tsv'):
    print(entry['book'], entry['chapter'], entry['verse'])
    print(entry['anchor'])
    for ref in entry['references']:
        print(f"  {ref['book']} {ref['chapter']}:{ref['verses']}")

I intend to at some stage make a better parser in both Python and C# to help you get started as quickly and as easily as possible.

Translations

Code	Translation	Language	Status	License
KJV	King James Version	English	Complete	Public domain
BSB	Berean Standard Bible	English	Pass 1 Complete	Public domain
S21	Segond 21	French	Pass 1 Complete	Used with permission from Société Biblique de Genève
AOV	Afrikaanse Ou Vertaling	Afrikaans	Pass 1 Complete	Public domain

Note on S21: The Segond 21 Bible text is © Société Biblique de Genève. This dataset contains only the anchor phrases (short fragments used to locate cross-references within a verse), not the full Bible text.

License

The cross-reference data in this repository is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

About

This data is maintained as part of CrossReferences.org, a free Bible study tool. The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge is a remarkable work, and this project stands on it gratefully. The aim is to make it accessible across translations, languages, and devices, as well as to refine it where appropriate.