8 pictures
Pictures of Scripture drawn from this site's own data. Open one to see it live and adjust it; each says what it shows and where its numbers come from.
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Seeds
Every verse, and how often each has been drawn
What you are seeing
Every verse of the Bible, 31,102 of them, set out as the seeds of one sunflower head in Bible order: Genesis 1:1 at the centre, Revelation 22:21 at the rim. The Old Testament is blue and the New Testament is the gold ring around it. The faint rings inside are the 66 books, alternately lighter and darker.
Each seed is sized by how many times the homepage's random draw has landed on that verse. In One day mode, only the verses drawn on the day you pick are lit.
How to read it
Look for the evenness. Because every verse is equally likely, no part of the disc should stand out, and none does: the sizes vary only by chance. Hover over or tap a seed to see its reference and its count. Light a verse finds any verse on the disc.
Where the data comes from
The site's own draw log, which records each whole-Bible draw the homepage makes. Draws from a narrowed range (the Range slider) are not logged, so this is the plain random draw only. The counts are this site's alone; no other site has them.
What not to read into it
A larger seed is not a more important verse, only a luckier one so far. The log also includes some automated traffic. It does not tilt the picture, because those draws were random too.
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The Fair Draw
Is the draw really random? The bell says yes
What you are seeing
Each blue bar counts the verses that have been drawn a given number of times: how many were drawn exactly 50 times, how many 51, and so on. The gold curve is what pure chance predicts for that many draws spread over 31,102 verses.
How to read it
If the draw favoured some verses, the bars would spread wider than the curve, or bunch up in a second hump. They don't: the bars sit on the curve. The spread ratio under the picture puts a number on it. A perfectly fair draw gives 1, and anything close to 1 is a fair draw. Choose a month to check a smaller sample; its curve is narrower and lower, as chance says it should be.
Where the data comes from
The same draw log as Seeds and the Randomness Archive, which checks the same draws book by book.
What not to read into it
A verse at the far right of the bell has not been "chosen" more; with 31,102 verses, a few will always land at each tail by chance alone. That is exactly what the curve predicts.
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Where Readers Answered
Every verse readers have reacted to on the homepage
What you are seeing
The same sunflower of every verse, faint, with each verse readers have reacted to lit in gold. A bigger mark means more reactions. Choose a reaction to see only that one.
How to read it
Hover over or tap a mark for the verse and its reactions. The list under the picture names the verses with the most reactions; each opens the verse.
Where the data comes from
The seven reaction buttons under the verse on the homepage. One reader can give a verse each reaction once. A retired eighth button is left out.
What not to read into it
More reactions land in the New Testament than its share of verses would suggest. That is most likely the Range slider, which lets readers draw from the best-known verses, and many of those are in the New Testament. It is not a ranking of Scripture.
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The Meaning Map
Every verse placed beside the verses that say something similar
What you are seeing
Every verse is a dot, placed so that verses with similar meaning sit near each other. Nobody arranged it by hand: the positions come from the same meaning-based index the site's search uses, flattened from hundreds of dimensions onto the page. The Old Testament is blue and the New is gold, and they separate on their own.
How to read it
Hover over or tap a dot to see the verse. Show a book lights one book wherever its verses fall. Place a phrase finds the verses nearest your words in meaning and marks where they sit; the list of them opens each verse.
The small knots standing apart are words repeated almost exactly, such as "And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying," which the King James Version uses 72 times, or the offerings of the tribes in Numbers 7.
Where the data comes from
The site's own search index, which stores each verse's meaning as a list of 768 numbers. A method called UMAP lays those out in two dimensions while keeping neighbours together.
What not to read into it
Only closeness means anything. The distance between two far-apart regions, the shape of the whole, and which way is up are side effects of flattening, not findings.
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Reach
One verse, and everything it opens onto
What you are seeing
The Bible as a ring of 66 books, Genesis at the top and the books running clockwise. The verse you choose glows. The strong lines are its cross-references, and the faint lines are what each of those verses references in turn.
How to read it
Choose a verse, or tap any dot on the ring to follow it. Strongest limits the lines to the most-agreed references. Switch off Second step to see only the verse's own.
Where the data comes from
OpenBible.info's cross-references, where readers voted on each link. The same list gives the verse page its cross-references.
What not to read into it
A verse with many lines is not more important; well-known verses simply gathered more links.
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Centuries of Reading
Where the Church Fathers commented, and when
What you are seeing
Each dot is one quotation from the site's Church Fathers library. Left to right is the Bible, Genesis to Revelation. Bottom to top is the writer's date. Because the library keeps one date per writer, each writer forms a horizontal streak across the books they wrote on.
How to read it
Choose a writer to light their streak. Hover over or tap a dot for the writer and the verse. The dense band around AD 400 is Augustine, John Chrysostom and Jerome.
Where the data comes from
The site's Church Fathers library: more than 60,000 quotations from some 300 writers, each linked to the verse it discusses.
What not to read into it
Gaps show what this collection holds, not what was never written. Many works are lost, and others are not in the library yet. A writer's date is a single year, usually the year of death, so a long career sits on one line.
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Where a Word Lives
One Hebrew or Greek word, across the whole Bible
What you are seeing
Each row is one Hebrew or Greek word, and each tick a verse it appears in, Genesis at the left and Revelation at the right. The thin line marks where the New Testament begins. The words shown first are the Bible's words for love: ʾāhab and chesed in Hebrew, agapaō, agapē and phileō in Greek.
How to read it
Add a word by its Strong's number (G25) or by typing an English word and choosing from the list. Every occurrence shows each verse the word appears in. Where the study notes dwell on it shows only the verses whose notes on this site single that word out. Hover over or tap a tick for the verse.
Where the data comes from
The Strong's numbers tagged in the King James text, and the key words the site's own study notes pick out for each verse.
What not to read into it
A Strong's number is one dictionary entry, not one English word. One Hebrew word can be translated many ways, and one English word can stand for several Hebrew or Greek ones.
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Threads
Scripture linked to itself, 432,944 times
What you are seeing
The Bible as one line along the bottom, Genesis at the left and Revelation at the right. Each cross-reference is an arc from one verse to another. Blue arcs stay within a testament, and gold arcs join the Old to the New. The small gold tick marks Matthew 1:1.
How to read it
The full picture is exposed like a photograph, so dense regions glow without burying the faint long arcs. Old to New only keeps just the gold. Choose a book to see only the threads leaving it, drawn live.
Where the data comes from
OpenBible.info's cross-references, the same list the verse page and Reach use.
What not to read into it
The arc form is not new. Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild drew the Bible's cross-references this way in 2007, and this picture is in their debt.
All visualizations
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Seeds
Every verse, and how often each has been drawn
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The Fair Draw
Is the draw really random? The bell says yes
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Where Readers Answered
Every verse readers have reacted to on the homepage
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The Meaning Map
Every verse placed beside the verses that say something similar
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Reach
One verse, and everything it opens onto
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Centuries of Reading
Where the Church Fathers commented, and when
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Where a Word Lives
One Hebrew or Greek word, across the whole Bible
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Threads
Scripture linked to itself, 432,944 times