About

The Basics

What's a connection?

A connection links two Bible passages that relate to each other. Maybe they use similar language, develop the same theme, or one directly quotes the other.

For example, when Jesus says "I am the light of the world" (John 8:12), that connects to Isaiah 9:2 ("The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light") and Revelation 21:23 (the city needs no sun because "the Lamb is its lamp"). Connections help you see these threads running through scripture.

Where do these connections come from?

The data comes from Williams Bible Links™ (opens in new tab), a project by Rodger Williams released in 2021 and placed in the public domain.

Williams compiled connections from 70 public domain sources such as Bible commentaries and cross-reference collections and combined them into a single dataset. When a source listed related verses together, the system identified connections between every verse in that group, then tallied how often each connection appeared across all 70 sources. The result: over 1.5 million confirmed connections (noted by 2 or more sources) and 3.5 million more from single sources.

Understanding the Data

How connections are ranked

For each verse, connections are divided into five tiers based on how many sources noted them. Tier 1 contains the connections with the most agreement; Tier 5 contains connections noted by just one source.

Tier 1 — Strongest agreement. The connections that the most sources independently recognized for each verse. If you only look at one tier, this is where you'll find the most confident connections.

Tier 2 — Broad agreement (the recommended starting point). The next tier of well-supported connections. Together with Tier 1, this gives you a solid foundation for study without overwhelming you.

Tier 3 — Some agreement. Less commonly cited connections. You may find meaningful relationships here that fewer sources happened to note, perhaps because the connection is subtler or more specific to a particular tradition.

Tier 4 — Two or more sources. Everything noted by at least two independent sources. This is the full set of confirmed connections (over one million in total) where more than one source saw the same relationship.

Tier 5 — Single source mentions. Connections noted by just one source out of 70. Williams separated these from Tiers 1-4 to minimize false positives. There are several million additional connections here. Some will be genuinely insightful, others may be less relevant.

Each tier includes all the tiers above it. Choosing Tier 3 shows Tier 1, 2, and 3 connections together.

The ranking is relative to each verse. Tier 1 for a heavily cross-referenced verse may represent dozens of sources agreeing; for a less-referenced verse, just a few.

Groups

Groups were detected algorithmically by analyzing which verses tend to be cited together across the source commentaries. Verses that frequently appear together end up in the same group.

Groups are numbered rather than named. This is partly practical: there are thousands of unique groups, and naming them all would be an enormous undertaking. But it's also intentional. We believe scripture should speak for itself. You read the verses and discover the connections yourself.

The order of groups and verses is intentional:

• Groups are sorted with the most important first, based on how often the top verse in each group was cited
• Within each group, adjacent verses are grouped together

Why a connection might be missing

This dataset records what the source commentaries noted, not every possible connection. Some observations:

• The commentaries reflect questions scholars were thinking about at the time
• Connections that seem obvious to you may not have been noted if no source author wrote about them
• The grouping algorithm organizes verses differently at different tiers. With fewer verses (Tier 1), it creates broader groups; with more verses, it makes finer distinctions

If you're looking for a specific connection and don't find it, try increasing the tier. But even at Tier 5, some connections aren't in the source data.

Using the App

Read

Read the Bible chapter by chapter. Each verse shows an indicator of how many connections it has. Tap any verse to see them in a side panel. Connections are organized by group. You can adjust the tier to see more or fewer connections.

Connection Map

A visualization showing how books connect to each other. Thicker ribbons mean more connections between those books. Tap any ribbon to see the specific verse connections. The in-app guide (which opens automatically on first visit) explains the controls and what the numbers mean.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q What are tiers?

A

Tiers rank connections by source agreement: how many historical Bible commentaries and cross-references independently noted each one. Tier 1 has the strongest agreement and therefore the highest confidence that the connections relate to each other; Tier 5 includes connections noted by just one source.

• Tier 1 — strongest agreement
• Tier 2 — broad agreement (default)
• Tier 3 — some agreement
• Tier 4 — two or more sources agree
• Tier 5 — single source mentions

Each tier includes all tiers above it. You'll see tier numbers next to each connection. Hover over any badge to learn more. See How Connections Are Ranked for the full explanation.

Q What are the sources?

A The connection data comes from 70 public domain works such as Bible commentaries, compiled by Rodger Williams into a single dataset called Williams Bible Links. When multiple sources independently listed the same two verses as related, that connection was ranked higher. See Where do these connections come from? for more detail.

Q Which tier should I use?

A The default (Tier 2 — broad agreement) is a good balance for most study. Go deeper when you want to explore a verse more thoroughly. Tier 5 adds millions of single-source connections: more to explore, less certain.

Q What are groups and why are they numbered?

A Groups are clusters of related verses, detected by analyzing which verses tend to be cited together. They're numbered rather than named for two reasons: practically, there are thousands of unique groups, and naming them all would be an enormous undertaking. But it's also intentional — we believe scripture should speak for itself. You read the verses and discover the connections yourself.

Q Why can't I find a connection I expected?

A The data records what the source commentaries noted, not every possible connection. If a connection seems obvious to you but isn't in the data, it may be that no source author wrote about it. Try increasing the tier, but even at Tier 5, some connections aren't in the source data.

Q Why aren't you using my favorite Bible translation?

A The verse text comes from the World English Bible (WEB), a modern English translation in the public domain. You might wonder why we didn't use a more familiar translation like the NIV or ESV. Those are copyrighted, and using them would require licensing that conflicts with our goal of keeping this tool freely available. The WEB is clear, readable, and legally unrestricted.

Credits

• Connection data: Williams Bible Links™ (opens in new tab) by Rodger Williams (Public Domain, 2021)
• Bible text: World English Bible (opens in new tab) (Public Domain)