Searching across verse boundaries

Harry Hahne

Is there a way to search for search terms that occur within a certain number of verses from one another? For example, a search for “father" WITHIN 30 WORDS "son" WITHIN 30 WORDS "spirit” will not find John 3:35-36 and 1 John 4:13-14 because the words are in different verses, even though they are within 30 words of one another.

The only way I can see to do this is with a Basic search on the Bible. This lists the results by Bible chapter and there is no way to control the proximity of a certain number of verses.

This is even more important in Greek, since a single Greek sentence can span several Bible verses.

Dave Hooton

The only way I can see to do this is with a Basic search on the Bible. This lists the results by Bible chapter and there is no way to control the proximity of a certain number of verses.

Correct, proximity is only by WORDS or CHARACTERS (remember to select Bible Text, rather than All Text).

For example, a search for “father" WITHIN 30 WORDS "son" WITHIN 30 WORDS "spirit” will not find John 3:35-36 and 1 John 4:13-14 because the words are in different verses,

Verses would be just as artificial as Word proximity if attempting to get results that are grammatically related. For this you search within Clauses/Phrases using Syntax Search; and results can span multiple verses.  Whilst it does not pick up Jn 3:34-35 & 1 Jn 4:13-14 (being in different sentences) it does pick up Lk 10:21-22 (for which you would need a proximity of about 50 Words).