Keyword search has been the foundation of Bible software for decades. It’s powerful, precise, and indispensable for serious study. But it has a fundamental limitation: you have to already know the words you’re looking for.
This is a real barrier for people who are new to the Bible. The Bible has a specialized vocabulary that a new reader will not be familiar with. If you want to find verses about being anxious, it is difficult to form a keyword search that finds “Philippians 4:6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” or “1 Peter 5:7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.”
Even experienced readers run into this. You remember the idea of a passage but not the phrasing. You know the concept you want to study but aren’t sure which terms the Bible uses to express it. You end up trying keyword after keyword, hoping to land on the right one, then resort to Commentaries or Dictionaries.
SwordSearcher 10 introduces natural language Bible search to address this directly. Instead of keywords, you describe what you’re looking for in plain language — a concept, a feeling, a half-remembered idea — and SwordSearcher finds the verses that match the meaning of what you typed.
Search for “morning thoughts” and find Psalm 5:3: “My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.” That’s not a result keyword search can give you, because the words “morning” and “thoughts” don’t appear together in the verse. But it’s a perfect match. You’ll also find “Psalm 143:8 Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee.”
This doesn’t replace keyword search. Precision still matters, and when you know what you’re looking for, or are in a deep study, nothing beats an exact search. Natural language search is a complement — a way in for the reader who doesn’t yet have the vocabulary, and a way forward for the reader who knows what they mean but not how to say it.
I’ve been building Bible software for over thirty years, and thinking about this problem for at least twenty of them. I’m glad to have finally shipped a solution. I hope you find it edifying.
