Tips for Usage

A Note to English Speakers

This online Bible is the French translation published by Éditions C.E.B (the name by which FWO is known among French speakers) called La Bible Louis Segond revue 2020. It is a lightly updated version of the popular Louis Segond of 1910.

Although the Bible text is in French, the website text on this page is in English for the benefit of English speakers who may have some limited need to find a French translation of Bible passages. When looking up passages by reference, you are free to use either the English or the French names of the books of the Bible, as both are recognized.

Please be aware that in a few rare cases the verses are numbered differently in French Bibles than in English. This most often occurs in the Psalms: for those psalms that begin with a title in the Hebrew text, that title is not numbered separately from the first verse in English, whereas in French it is considered as verse 1, and French verse 2 would then correspond to verse 1 in English, and every subsequent verse would be offset by one. For example, Psalm 3 has 8 verses in English because the title is not numbered separately, whereas in French there are 9 verses since the title by itself is verse 1.

Search by Passage

The search field accepts both lookups by Bible references and word searches. To look up a passage of the Bible, enter the name of the book followed by the chapter and verse number. For example, to look up Matthew, chapter 5, verse 6, you can enter Matthew 5:6. Next, click the magnifying glass or use the return key to perform the search.

To look up an entire chapter, it is not necessary to enter the verse numbers; the chapter number alone will suffice: 1 Corinthians 13.

To look up a range of verses, use a hyphen:

• In a single chapter: Matthew 28:18-20.
• A range of verses that spans more than one chapter: 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:2.
• Whole chapters: Matthew 5-7.

It is possible to look up several passages at the same time:

• For non-consecutive verses in the same chapter, use a comma: Ephesians 1:3, 4, 7, 9, 11.
• For non-consecutive verses in the same book: John 14.16-17, 25-26; 16:13.
• For passages that are not in the same book: Ephesians 1:22-23; 4:4; Colossians 1:18.

For the five books that only have one chapter, this tool follows the convention by which it is not necessary to indicate the chapter. Thus, one may enter either Jude 1:3 or simply Jude 3 to arrive at the same verse. However, there are two exceptions:

1. When looking up the entire book, is necessary to indicate the chapter number, for example, Jude 1, since the word Jude alone is recognized as a word search for the term “Jude” in the Bible (see below).
2. Consequently, when looking for the first verse, it is necessary to indicate the chapter along with the verse: Jude 1:1.

However, when searching for the first verse along with other verses from the same book, it is not necessary to indicate the chapter number: Jude 1, 3 or Jude 1-4.

This tool attempts to be flexible regarding the format of biblical references:

• Abbreviations are recognized the same as complete book names: Ephesians 2:8-10 or Eph. 2:8-10.
• Neither capitalization nor accents (as used in the French names) are required: Éph. 2:8-10, Eph. 2:8-10, or eph. 2:8-10.
• Neither a space nor, in the case of abbreviations, a period is necessary between the book name and the chapter and verse number: Eph. 2:8-10, Eph 2:8-10, or Eph2.8-10.
• For numbered books (for example 1 John, 2 John, 3 John), both Roman and Arabic numerals are accepted, even without a space in the latter case: II John 9-11, 2 John 9-11, or 2John 9-11.
• Either a period or colon may be used between the chapter and verse: Eph. 2:8-10 or Eph. 2.8-10.
• You may enter book names or abbreviations in English or French, as both are recognized: Revelation 2:10, Apocalypse 2.10, Apoc. 2.10.

As there are variations of spelling for some book names and abbreviations, this tool accepts several spellings. When in doubt, these are the spellings that we recommend:

As an alternative to the search field, the “Book List” button next to it allows you to go directly to a passage by clicking first on the book name and then on the chapter number for which you are looking.

Search by Keyword

The search field accepts both lookups by Bible references and word searches. To search for one or more words in the Bible, enter the word or words in the search field. For example, to find out in which verses the name “Jésus” appears in this French translation of the Bible, you can enter Jésus. (Neither accents nor capitals are required.) Next, click the magnifying glass or use the return key to perform the search.

You will then see every verse in the Bible that contains the term that you searched for, 25 results per page. Above the results, you will see the number of verses where the term was found. (Note that it is the number of verses rather than the total number of times the term is found in the Bible, as the term could appear more than once in a single verse.)

It is possible to include more than one word in your search. In this case, the results will only include verses containing every word that you have entered. If, for example, you search for esprit saint, only those verses that have both “esprit” and “saint” will appear in the results.

If you wish to search for only verses that contain the exact phrase “Esprit Saint” and not other verses with the two words “esprit” and “saint” (such as “Saint-Esprit”), enter the phrase between quotation marks (or French guillemets): "Esprit Saint" ou « Esprit Saint ».

It is possible to exclude from the results verses that contain specific words. Add a minus sign (or a hyphen) just in front of the term that you wish to exclude. For example, the search esprit -saint will show all verses that have the word “esprit” but do not also have the word “saint.” You may also exclude expressions in the same way. The word search Jésus Christ -"Jésus-Christ" will show all the verses that have the name “Jésus” and the word “Christ” except those that have the exact phrase “Jésus-Christ.”

If you add an asterisk after several letters, the search results will show all the verses that have words beginning with those letters. For example, when studying baptism, it is good to see what the Bible says about the subject. But instead of searching for the various forms “baptême,” “baptêmes,” “baptiser,” “baptiserai,” “baptisé,” etc., it is easier to put the word root followed by the asterisk at the end: bapt*.

Finally, it is possible to combine several of these criteria. When making the search above in order to study baptism, several of the results concern “Jean-Baptiste.” It is possible to exclude those verses from the results like so: bapt* -"Jean-Baptiste".

Filtering the Results

This online Bible also offers the ability to filter results of a word search to show only the verses from a specific book or part of the Bible. Every time you make a word search, a list of applicable filters appears to the right of the results (on wide screens) or under the results (on smaller screens). The number of matching verses in each book or group of books is displayed between parentheses beside the name of the book or group.

For example, if you search for the word amour, you will see that there are 168 verses in the entirety of this French Bible that have this word, of which 53 are in the Old Testament. Of these 53, there are 23 in the books of poetry, including 3 specifically in the book of Psalms. If you click on “Psalms (3)”, the three verses in that book will be displayed. If you have applied a filter, there will be a “Clear Filter” button to return to showing all the results, or you could click the filter “All Books.”

App for iPhone and iPad

A true app for this Bible is not available, but iPhone and iPad users can create a shortcut that functions in app mode. When you are on the online Bible page:

1. Tap the share icon .
2. Select “Add to Home Screen.”
3. Tap “Add.”

Next, an icon will be placed on your home screen that will allow you to directly launch this page in app mode, without opening your browser.

To Download This Bible

The entire Bible Louis Segond version revue 2020 is also available for download as a PDF.

Click here to download.