A typical church website will contain numerous Bible references. Devotional resources, sermon notes, blog posts, and “About Us” pages are just a few areas that might cite passages by chapter and verse. Reproducing every cited passage is not always necessary or desired. Often times, we just want to tie an idea or concept to an example from Scripture.

Online Bibles have given us an opportunity to strengthen the relationship between a Bible reference and the idea or concept that it supports. A simple HTML link can help get the point across without forcing the reader to thumb through their physical Bible. Unfortunately, it can be cumbersome to manually link a reference to an online Bible resource. However, a new tool from Logos has the ability to automate that process. It’s called RefTagger, and it’s a free tool written in JavaScript.

Once RefTagger is installed, it will automatically transform Bible references into JavaScript mouseovers and links. It identifies references in a variety of formats (John 3:16, John 3:16-17, etc.) and is even intelligent enough to determine which translation to use (John 3:16 (KJV), John 3:16 (NIV), etc.).

The RefTagger code is customizable and can be installed by pasting it right before the </body> tag on your website. Plugins are also available for major blog, forum and wiki platforms. Check it out!