About this plugin
Prodigal Verse shows your readers a Bible verse the moment they hover it — without sending them away from what they’re reading. It finds references you’ve already written, like “John 3:16”, and turns them into verse links automatically. When you want more control, you can link any phrase you choose: “for God so loved the world” instead of the citation.
Everything runs on your own server. Three complete translations — the World English Bible, King James Version, and Berean Standard Bible — ship with the plugin. There is no API key to request, no account to create, and no request to any outside service.
Your site keeps working if someone else’s service goes down, because there is no other service. Your readers’ data never leaves your site.
Features
- Works the moment you activate it. Bible references already in your posts become verse links with no setup and no editing — the automatic linking finds each reference and links it for you.
- Or link any phrase you like. Select text, click one button, pick a reference. Your words carry the verse.
- Three translations included — World English Bible (WEB), King James Version (KJV), Berean Standard Bible (BSB).
- No external requests. At all. No API key, no account, no tracking, no cookies, no third-party service. Privacy-respecting and GDPR-friendly by construction.
- Fast. Verse text is embedded as the page renders, so the tooltip popup opens instantly. Under 25KB of CSS and JavaScript, loaded only on pages that use it.
- Works everywhere. Hover on desktop, tap on mobile, full keyboard and screen-reader support (WCAG 2.1 AA).
- Set a translation for your whole site, and override it for any individual verse.
- You stay in control. Turn automatic linking off, exclude specific phrases, or switch off outbound links entirely.
- No upsell. No pro version, no nag screens, no dashboard ads.
For churches, ministries, and writers
Whether you run a church website, publish sermon notes, write a devotional blog, or maintain any Christian ministry site, references like “Romans 5:8” or a whole passage citation become living links — readers see the scripture verses in place, then can click through to read the full chapter for context.
Two ways to author
Automatic detection handles references you write naturally in a post or page — “John 3:16”, “(1 Cor 13:4-7)”, “Eph 2:8-9”. It links complete references conservatively; chapter-only references like “Psalm 23” are off by default and one checkbox turns them on.
The [prodigal_verse] shortcode gives you full control of the linking:
[prodigal_verse ref="John 3:16"]for God so loved the world[/prodigal_verse]
The “Insert Bible Verse” button writes the shortcode for you, with a live preview of the verse text before you insert. It appears in the block editor (Gutenberg), the classic editor, and Elementor’s Text Editor widget. Select text first and those words become the link; with nothing selected you can type the link text yourself, or leave it empty to show the reference.
The shortcode works in any paragraph, heading, list, or quote block, and in widgets.
Accessibility
1 AA: they open on keyboard focus, dismiss with Escape, stay open while the pointer moves into them, and announce verse text to screen readers. On phones, the first tap opens the tooltip instead of navigating; a second tap dismisses it.
For developers
pv-no-autolink opt-out markers, and prodigal_verse_* filters for programmatic control. All verse access goes through a provider interface. No custom tables, no transients; uninstall removes everything.