Scripture Index
Joseph Louthan24 downloadsBuilds a Scripture index page, with plain Markdown links for mdBook, of every Bible reference in a folder.
- Overview
- Scorecard
- Updates3
Builds a Scripture index page for a book you write in Obsidian and publish with mdBook. The plugin finds every Bible reference in your book folder and writes one page that lists each passage in canonical order, with links back to the pages that cite it.
## Genesis
- **Genesis 1** — [Our Forever Home](genesis/genesis01-6-13.md) · [The Fall of Mankind](confession/06-1-fall.md)
- **Genesis 1:1** — [The Creator of Heaven and Earth](creed/creator.md)
- **Genesis 22:1–14** — [The Gospel Sacrifice](genesis/genesis22.md)
The page uses plain Markdown links, not wikilinks, so mdBook (or any static site generator) can publish it as-is. It has no front matter.
See it live: theologic.us Scripture Index.
What it recognizes
- Full names and common abbreviations:
Romans 8:28,Rom. 8:28,Mt 5:3,Jn. 3:16,Ps 23:1 - Numbered books:
1 John,1John,I John,1st John,First John - Ranges, including ranges that cross chapters:
Genesis 22:1-14,Genesis 1:1–2:3 - Lists:
John 3:16-18, 22andRomans 8:28; 9:1, 5 - Whole chapters:
Psalm 23,Genesis 1–11. These count only with the full book name, and you can turn them off. - Single-chapter books:
Jude 3is indexed as Jude 1:3. .as the chapter–verse separator (Matthew 5.3) and verse parts (Romans 3:23a)
It skips code, HTML tags and comments, URLs, and link targets.
Each link's text is the page's first # heading. If a page has none (for example, its title is styled HTML), the link uses the page's title from SUMMARY.md, then the filename. It also discards references that don't exist, such as Genesis 51:1.
Settings
| Setting | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Include whole chapters | on | Off keeps only references with a verse. |
| When to update | Once a day, when idle | Rebuilds at most once every 24 hours, after the book folder has been quiet for the idle time. Other options: Whenever idle and Manual only. |
| Idle minutes | 5 | How long to wait after the last edit before writing. |
| Book folder | src |
Scanned recursively. SUMMARY.md is read from here. |
| Index page | src/scripture-index.md |
The generated page. Anything you edit in it is overwritten. |
| Page title | Scripture Index | |
| Header image | (empty) | Optional src for an <img class="intro-right"> line above the title. |
| Only pages listed in SUMMARY.md | on | mdBook builds only the pages listed in SUMMARY.md, so links to any other page would be broken. |
| Exclude | CHANGELOG.md |
Comma-separated paths inside the book folder. |
| Coverage report | (empty = off) | Vault path for a coverage note (see below). Keep it outside the book folder to keep it private. |
| Coverage on index page | off | Also append the coverage section to the published index page, with a Coverage link under the quick links at the top. |
The command Rebuild Scripture index now rebuilds the page immediately.
Coverage report
The coverage report shows which parts of the Bible your book cites and which it doesn't, which helps when planning what to write next. For each book it shows a coverage bar, the number of chapters cited, the number of pages citing it, and the chapters not yet cited, for example Exodus | ▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░░ | 22/40 | 51 | 1–2, 4–5, 9–11, …. It also lists the books that are never cited and the 10 least-covered books.
A chapter counts as cited if any reference touches it, even a single verse. Whole-chapter references count toward coverage even when Include whole chapters is off. The command Open Scripture coverage report opens the note.
The plugin rewrites the index page only when its content changes. If your vault is synced or auto-committed to git, an unchanged index doesn't create a new commit.
Getting started
- Install Scripture Index from Community plugins and enable it.
- Set Book folder to the folder that holds your mdBook
SUMMARY.md. Set Index page to a path inside it. - Run Rebuild Scripture index now.
- Add the page to
SUMMARY.mdonce, for example:- [Scripture Index](scripture-index.md).
Manual install
Download main.js and manifest.json from the latest release. Put them in <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/bible-ref-index/, then enable the plugin.
Limitations
- Only English book names are recognized, and only the 66-book Protestant canon.
- Abbreviations must include a verse.
Is 3andAm 5look too much like ordinary words, so they're skipped.Is 3:16andAm 5:24are indexed. - The index is a single page. A large book can produce a big page: about 5,000 passages from 1,100 pages comes to roughly 1 MB of Markdown.
Development
npm install
npm test # parser tests (Node 22.6+)
npm run build # type-check and bundle main.js
npm run preview -- /path/to/book/src # dry run; writes /tmp/scripture-index.md
VAULT=/path/to/vault npm run install-plugin
To release, bump version in manifest.json and package.json and add it to versions.json. Commit, then push a tag that matches the version exactly, with no v prefix (git tag 0.2.0 && git push origin 0.2.0). GitHub Actions builds the plugin and creates a draft release. Publish the draft.
Changelog
See CHANGELOG.md.