# Sovereign Logos

> Verbatim public-domain scripture with the Septuagint as the Old Testament: the text the apostles quoted. Side-by-side comparison against Masoretic-based translations, with free JSON, Markdown and MCP access for AI agents.

Sovereign Logos serves the full Septuagint Old Testament, including the books and passages missing from Masoretic-based Bibles, alongside the King James Version with Apocrypha and other public-domain texts. Scripture text is served exactly as published by its source and never altered. Every API response includes a citation URL to the chapter page; please link it when quoting.

## Agent access

- [MCP server](https://sovereignlogos.com/api/mcp): Streamable HTTP, no auth. Tools: get_passage, compare_translations, search_scripture, list_translations, list_books. Add with `claude mcp add --transport http sovereign-logos https://sovereignlogos.com/api/mcp`
- [Passage API](https://sovereignlogos.com/api/v1/scripture/passage?ref=Psalm%2023&translation=lxx2012&format=md): one passage, up to 200 verses, JSON or Markdown
- [Compare API](https://sovereignlogos.com/api/v1/scripture/compare?ref=Isaiah%207:14&translations=lxx2012,kjv&format=md): one reference across 2 to 6 translations
- [Search API](https://sovereignlogos.com/api/v1/scripture/search?q=virgin&translation=lxx2012): phrase search in one translation
- [OpenAPI spec](https://sovereignlogos.com/api/v1/scripture/openapi.json): full REST reference
- [Developer guide](https://sovereignlogos.com/developers): setup for Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and VS Code, endpoints, limits, citation
- [Full reference for LLMs](https://sovereignlogos.com/llms-full.txt): this file plus parameters, numbering rules and provenance

## Translations

- `geneva-1560`: Geneva Bible (1560), Apocrypha. Public domain.
- `lxx-brenton`: Brenton's Septuagint Translation (1844). Public domain.
- `lxx2012`: Septuagint in American English (2012). Public domain by dedication.
- `kjv`: King James Version, with the Apocrypha (1611). Public domain.
- `web`: World English Bible, with the Deuterocanon (2020). Public domain by dedication.
- `geneva-1599`: Geneva Bible, 1599 edition (Tomson New Testament). Public domain.
- `charles-1917`: The Book of Enoch, translated by R.H. Charles (1917). Public domain.

Psalm references default to Masoretic (KJV) numbering and are converted for the Septuagint translations. Responses state the Septuagint number.

## Read

- [Bible](https://sovereignlogos.com/bible): every book and chapter, URL pattern /bible/{translation}/{book-slug}/{chapter}, e.g. https://sovereignlogos.com/bible/lxx2012/isaiah/7
- [Read the Septuagint](https://sovereignlogos.com/septuagint): every Septuagint book, grouped, in two English translations
- [Compare](https://sovereignlogos.com/compare): Septuagint and Masoretic-based texts side by side, with the passages the New Testament quotes from the Septuagint
- [Apocrypha](https://sovereignlogos.com/apocrypha): the books removed from English Bibles after 1827, in up to five translations
- [Geneva Bible](https://sovereignlogos.com/geneva-bible): the 1599 Geneva Bible and the 1560 Geneva Apocrypha, original spelling
- [Restored Books](https://sovereignlogos.com/restored-books): passages the Masoretic text removed, restored from the Septuagint
- [About the Septuagint](https://sovereignlogos.com/about-the-septuagint): why the Septuagint is the Old Testament text here, and how its numbering works
- [Beyond the Canon](https://sovereignlogos.com/beyond-the-canon): 1 Enoch, quoted in Jude 1:14-15
- [Sources](https://sovereignlogos.com/sources): translator, date, licence and upstream for every text

## Optional

- [Webster's 1828 Dictionary](https://sovereignlogos.com/dictionary): original definitions with scripture references
- [Bible reading plan](https://sovereignlogos.com/bible-reading-plan): a one-year plan through the whole Bible, with audio and daily email or SMS

## REST reference

All endpoints are GET, anonymous, CORS-open, and rate limited per IP (60 per minute, 1000 per hour). Errors return `{ "error": code, "detail": message }` with HTTP 400 or 404.

### https://sovereignlogos.com/api/v1/scripture/passage

- `ref` (required): "John 3", "John 3-4", "John 3:16", "John 3:16-18", "Genesis 1:1-2:3". Up to 10 chapters and 200 verses.
- `translation`: a code from the list above. Default `lxx2012`.
- `psalmNumbering`: `mt` (default) or `native`.
- `format`: `json` (default) or `md`. `Accept: text/markdown` also selects Markdown.
- Returns `reference` (native numbering), `requested`, `verses[] {chapter, verse, text}`, `citation {url, translation, licence}`, `notes[]`.

### https://sovereignlogos.com/api/v1/scripture/compare

- `ref` (required), `translations` (comma-separated, 2 to 6, default `lxx2012,kjv`), `psalmNumbering`, `format`.
- Returns `passages[]` (one per translation that has the text), `unavailable[]`, `notes[]`.
- In Jeremiah, Exodus, Proverbs, Esther, Daniel and Job the Septuagint and Masoretic texts number and order material differently; identical chapter and verse may not be parallel text.

### https://sovereignlogos.com/api/v1/scripture/search

- `q` (required, 3 to 100 characters), `translation`, `limit` (1 to 50, default 20). Case-insensitive substring match, canonical order.

### https://sovereignlogos.com/api/v1/scripture/translations and https://sovereignlogos.com/api/v1/scripture/books

- Translation provenance, and books with chapter counts and available translations (`?translation=` filters).

## MCP

Endpoint: https://sovereignlogos.com/api/mcp. Protocol: MCP Streamable HTTP, stateless, JSON responses, no authentication. Same tools and limits as the REST API.

## Provenance

### Geneva Bible (1560), Apocrypha (`geneva-1560`)

- Translator: The 1560 Geneva translators; transcribed from the printed page by Sovereign Logos
- Published: 1560, Geneva. Transcribed 2026 from page images of one identified copy
- Licence: Public domain. Printed in 1560, so copyright expired everywhere long ago. Unlike the King James Version it was never a Crown-authorised edition, so no letters-patent restriction attaches to it in the United Kingdom either. Transcribed only from public-domain page scans; no modern edition was consulted, quoted or stored at any stage.
- Note: Unfinished, and published that way deliberately. No gaps remain inside any chapter. Tobit 4:5 is absent because this edition does not print that verse number, verified on the page. Italics marking translator-supplied words are recorded on the newer material only. A diplomatic transcription of one identified copy, not a critical edition.
- Coverage: 5,715 verses across 13 books, Apocrypha only
- Upstream: https://archive.org/details/the-1560-geneva-bible
- Psalm numbering: Masoretic

### Brenton's Septuagint Translation (`lxx-brenton`)

- Translator: Sir Lancelot Charles Lee Brenton (1807–1862)
- Published: 1844; standard edition 1851, London: Samuel Bagster & Sons
- Licence: Public domain. Published 1844–1851 and its translator died in 1862, so copyright has long expired everywhere. eBible.org, our upstream, states public domain outright.
- Coverage: 28,690 verses across 53 books, Old Testament and Deuterocanon
- Upstream: https://eBible.org/Scriptures/eng-Brenton_vpl.zip
- Psalm numbering: Septuagint (brenton scheme)

### Septuagint in American English (2012) (`lxx2012`)

- Translator: Brenton (base translation); Michael Paul Johnson (language updates)
- Published: 2012, eBible.org, updating Brenton’s 19th-century British English
- Licence: Public domain by dedication. Both layers are free: Brenton by expiry, and Michael Paul Johnson dedicated his American-English revisions to the public domain explicitly.
- Coverage: 28,324 verses across 54 books, Old Testament and Deuterocanon
- Upstream: https://eBible.org/Scriptures/eng-lxx2012_vpl.zip
- Psalm numbering: Septuagint (lxx2012 scheme)

### King James Version, with the Apocrypha (`kjv`)

- Translator: Six companies of translators appointed by James I; final revision by Thomas Bilson and Miles Smith
- Published: 1611; this text follows the 1769 Oxford standardisation
- Licence: Public domain. Published in 1611. Public domain in the United States and most of the world.
- Note: In the United Kingdom the King James Version remains under perpetual Crown copyright, exercised through royal letters patent and administered by Cambridge University Press. It is free to use here; the restriction is jurisdictional.
- Coverage: 36,807 verses across 80 books, the widest canon we carry, and the only source for 2 Esdras and the Additions to Esther
- Upstream: https://github.com/scrollmapper/bible_databases/blob/master/formats/json/KJVA.json
- Psalm numbering: Masoretic

### World English Bible, with the Deuterocanon (`web`)

- Translator: Michael Paul Johnson and the WEB translation committee
- Published: 2020 stable text edition, a revision of the 1901 American Standard Version
- Licence: Public domain by dedication. Not free by age but by choice: the translators dedicated it to the public domain outright, which is the strongest form of free licence.
- Note: “World English Bible” is a trademark of eBible.org. Copying is unrestricted; the only condition is that a modified text may not keep the name.
- Coverage: 37,467 verses across 81 books, whole Bible plus the Deuterocanon, including the 70 verses of 2 Esdras 7 the King James translators never had
- Upstream: https://eBible.org/Scriptures/eng-web_vpl.zip
- Psalm numbering: Masoretic

### Geneva Bible, 1599 edition (Tomson New Testament) (`geneva-1599`)

- Translator: William Whittingham and the Marian exiles at Geneva; New Testament revised by Laurence Tomson, 1576
- Published: First complete edition 1560; this is a later imprint dated 1599
- Licence: Public domain. Printed in 1599, so free by age everywhere. Unlike the King James Version it was never a Crown-authorised edition, so no letters-patent restriction attaches to it in the United Kingdom either. The digital edition is eBible.org’s, which states it is freely available worldwide with no copyright restrictions.
- Note: Two things to know. First, the New Testament here is Laurence Tomson’s 1576 revision, which follows Beza, not the 1560 New Testament, John 1:1 reads “that Word” where 1560 reads “the Word”. Every complete digital Geneva in circulation carries the Tomson revision; no 1560 New Testament exists in machine-readable form. Second, the spelling is original, not modernised: the widely reprinted modern “1599 Geneva Bible” from Tolle Lege Press modernises the spelling and asserts copyright over that edition, and this is not that text. Verse divisions also differ from the King James in about forty chapters, most visibly Job and the Daniel 3/4 boundary, so verse numbers do not always line up side by side.
- Coverage: 31,090 verses across 66 books, the Protestant canon. The 1599 imprint carries no Apocrypha; the 1560 edition did.
- Upstream: https://eBible.org/Scriptures/enggnv_vpl.zip
- Psalm numbering: Masoretic

### The Book of Enoch, translated by R.H. Charles (`charles-1917`)

- Translator: R.H. Charles (1855–1931)
- Published: 1917, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
- Licence: Public domain. Published in 1917 and its translator died in 1931, so it is public domain both by publication date and by the life-plus-seventy rule.
- Note: Charles produced the translation. The 1917 edition’s introduction was written by W.O.E. Oesterley, not by Charles, a distinction often lost when this text is reprinted.
- Coverage: 1,012 verses across 108 chapters
- Upstream: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Enoch_(Charles)
- Psalm numbering: Masoretic