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Using Advanced Search


  • Advanced text search
  • Specific Greek/Hebrew
  • Related by topic
  • Free search




Using Advanced Search



STEPBible provides four Advanced Search tools, or forms, for creating search queries.  Click in the Find Bar and then click Advanced search to access them.

STEPBible will display a window headed by four tabs labeled:

Advanced text search
Specific Greek/Hebrew form
Related by topic
Free search

Click the tab for the kind of search you want to perform.  


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Advanced text search

Use this form to create a query telling STEPBible what to search for.  First, from the descriptor drop-down list to the right of "Search for verses with," choose an appropriate descriptor for the verses you want to view.  Choose whether to search for verses containing:
one or more words
all of the words
the exact phrase
words similar to
words starting with

Type the corresponding word or words you are searching for into the text field to the right of the descriptor drop-down list.

To set the range of scripture within which STEPBible should search, you can either use the Bible book currently displayed on the Book Button in the Find Bar, or type a range into the Within Field to the right of the word "within" at the right end of the Advanced text search form.  NOTE:  If you choose to type a book or range into the Within Field, you must dismiss the Bible book currently displayed on the Book Button in the Find Bar by clicking the "X" on the Book Button.  Otherwise STEPBible will restrict the search range to the Bible book currently displayed on the Book Button.




You can type one or several words to search for, or you can generate a more-complex search query by clicking the " + " at "Add a search row."

You use the added search row to add a word or words to your query to be included or excluded in the search, and you can designate a range of adjoining verses within which results pertaining to the included or excluded word(s) should be displayed.



STEPBible displays the text of your query in the grayed box in the lower left of the Advanced text search form.  You may find it useful to study your query that STEPBible creates here in order to better understand the use of the Free search query form (described below), accessed from the rightmost tab of the Advanced search window.


When you have completed forming your search query, click the Add to lookup query button to display your query's Query Button in the Find Bar.

Click the Find Button (Magnifying Glass) at the right end of the Find Bar to display your search results.

To exit the Advanced search window, click the Close button.  You can edit your query by clicking your Query Button in the Find Bar.

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Specific Greek/Hebrew 

Use this form to tell STEPBible what Greek or Hebrew word (as rendered in your language - see Setting your Language) to search for.  To perform a Hebrew/Greek search, you must have selected a vocabulary-capable Bible version.  Vocabulary-capable Bible versions have a "V" on the line to the right of the Bible version as it appears in the Bible Version drop-down list in the Find Bar.  See Opening Bibles & Commentaries for more about vocabulary-capable Bible versions.

Choose whether to search for a Greek or a Hebrew word from the Original language drop-down list.  Then, begin typing the word you want to search for in the Specific Greek/Hebrew form text field.  STEPBible will display a list of possible matches for you to choose from.  Click the list item you want to search for and then click Add to lookup query to display your query's Query Button in the Find Bar.  Click the Find Button (Magnifying Glass) at the right end of the Find Bar to display your search results.

To exit the Advanced search window, click the Close button.  You can edit your query by clicking your Query Button in the Find Bar.

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Related by topic

Use this form to tell STEPBible the scripture reference for which you want related scripture displayed.  Click in the Verse/chapter reference text field and choose a book.  STEPBible will then display a list of chapters for the book you chose.  Choose a chapter.  You can then type a verse number or range.  You can also just start typing the book and chapter reference for which you want related scripture references displayed.  Click Add to lookup query to display your query's Query Button in the Find Bar.  Click the Find Button (Magnifying Glass) at the right end of the Find Bar to display your search results.

To exit the Advanced search window, click the Close button.  You can edit your query by clicking your Query Button in the Find Bar.

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Free search

Use this form to create a search query.

A search query is text describing what you want STEPBible to find.  Your query must conform to specific syntax rules in order to be understood by STEPBible.

You can use Boolean Operators (AND, OR, NOT or AND NOT) in your query as conjunctions to combine or exclude keywords in a search.  STEPBible uses Lucene in the background, and the Lucene Query Syntax page gives more information.  (Apache Lucene is a free and open-source search engine software library.  See Apache Lucene - Query Parser Syntax and  Lucene Query Syntax Tutorial.)

Note: Study of the text of queries created through the form that STEPBible provides for Advanced text search (described above ⬆), can help you understand how to create your own queries.

You can create a query that searches for:
  • any text
  • original words translated as...
  • original Greek words
  • original Greek words + related words
  • original Hebrew words
  • original Hebrew words + related words
  • subject headings
  • subject headings in Nave's Topical Bible
  • subjects organised in categories
  • subjects extended through the whole text of Nave's
  • related verses
You identify each of the above types of search by using a search type prefix as described below.

Search type:  Text search
Search prefix:  t= (optional)
Example:  t=John

A Text search searches for words in the selected Bible or Commentaries, and can be done on any Bible of any language. It supports any word, whether English, German, Swahili, Greek, Hebrew, etc.

Text searches can use all the standard query operators. By default, the OR operator applies. "Jesus John" means "Jesus OR John". Here are some examples:
  • AND:  Jesus AND John 
  • + (must operator):  +Jesus +John 
  • OR:  (Jesus OR John) AND baptism 
  • NOT (Must not operator):  Jesus NOT John 
  • - (Must not operator):  Jesus -John 
  • * (starting with operator):  child* (would match child, children) 
  • ~ (sounds like operator):  melkizedc~ (would match Melchizedek). 
You can use brackets to group terms together:

(Jesus OR David) AND (king*)

This will look for all places where Jesus or David are mentioned in the same verse as king, kings, kingdom, etc.

You can also qualify two text searches run together and specify how many verses apart they should be:

Jesus ~2 John

This would tell STEPBible to search for all verses where Jesus and John are within 2 verses of each other.

Specify operators such as AND, OR, and NOT in capital letters.

The Text search also supports a range restriction/inclusion.
  • Specify restrictions in the following way: [Gen-Mal] (Search OT.)
  • Specify an exclusion with the - sign: -[Gen-Mal]  (Search the NT.)

You can use any of the following specific prefixes  to access different portions of the underlying Bible:
  • xref (xref:Gen.1.1 ):  runs a search for all verses annotated with a cross-reference for a given verse.  The reference must be in the format: Gen.1.1 (using dots) 
  • note (note:"House of David"):  runs a search within the notes contained in the selected versions 
  • heading (heading:Abraham):  runs a search against the headings in the selected Bible versions 
  • headingStem (headingStem:genealogy):  runs a stemmed search against the headings in the selected versions
    In linguistic morphology and information retrieval, stemming is the process of reducing inflected words to their word stem, base or root form—generally a written word form. Wikipedia
    Where a prefix is used, the next term must be a single word, or in quotation marks (note:"house of David")



Search type:  Original words translated as...
Search prefix:  ot=
Example:  ot=love
The Original words translated as... search type searches for all Greek & Hebrew words translated by this word.
Search type:  original Greek word
Search prefix:  og=
Example:  og=agathos

The original Greek word search type searches for all forms of that Greek word.  Supports:

  • Unicode 
  • Many different transliterations 
  • Strong numbers
Search type:  Greek related word search (Original Greek + related words)
Search prefix: og~=
Example:  og~=agathos
The Greek related word search type searches for all forms of that Greek word and related words. Supports:

  • Unicode 
  • Many different transliterations
  • Strong numbers
Search type:  Hebrew word search (Original Hebrew word)
Search prefix: oh=
Example: oh=hesed
The  Hebrew word search type searches for all forms of that Hebrew word. Supports:

  • Unicode 
  • Many different transliterations
  •  Strong numbers
Search type:  Hebrew related word search (Original Hebrew + related words)
Search prefix:  oh~=
Example:  oh~=bara
The Hebrew related word search type searches for all forms of that Hebrew word and related words. Supports:

  • Unicode 
  • Many different transliterations 
  • Strong numbers
Search type:  Subject Headings search
Search prefix:  sh=
Example:  sh=throne
The Subject Headings search type searches across the section headings of the versions selected. The ESV and NIV Bibles are always searched.
Search type:  Subjects in Nave's
Search prefix:  sn=
Example:  sn=David
The Subjects in Nave's search type searches the top-level headings of the Nave's Topical Bible. Results are organised by subject areas.
Search type:  Subject search - organised in categories
Search prefix:  s=
Example:  s=love
The Subject search - organised in categories search type searches all the headings of the Nave's Topical Bible. Results are organised by subject areas.

Search type:  Search eXtended through the whole text of Nave's
Search prefix: sx=
Example:  sx=children
The Search eXtended through the whole text of Nave's search type searches all the text of the Nave's Topical Bible. Results are organised by subject areas.

Search type:  Search Related
Search prefix:  sr=
Example: sr=Gen.1.1
The Search Related search type finds all verses that are related to the given reference. Results are organised by subject areas.


When you have completed creating your query, click Add to lookup query to display your query's Query Button in the Find Bar.  Click the Find Button (Magnifying Glass) at the right end of the Find Bar to display your search results.

To exit the Advanced search window, click the Close button.  You can edit your query by clicking your Query Button in the Find Bar.

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