I wanted to say a special thanks to Aaron Eby of the band Arba Minim for allowing me to use his incredibly cool javascript function to quickly link to Scripture passages on the Unbound Bible site. He wrote the code and I asked him if I could use it on my site. He was gracious enough to allow me the privilege.
For those of you who are wondering what all the excitement is all about, let me briefly explain. Most of the time when you want to link to a passage on a site like The Unbound Bible, it takes multiple steps. You first have to look up the Scripture on the website, copy a very long link, which looks something like this:
http://www.unboundbible.com/index.cfm?
method=searchResults.doSearch¶llel_1=nasb&
parallel_2=wlc_ucs2&book=01O&from_chap=24&
from_verse=62&to_chap=24&to_verse=64&font_family=
Cardo,SBL+Hebrew,Ezra+SIL+SR,Code2000
and then attach it to the text that you wish to make a hyperlink. With Aaron’s script, all I have to do is select the Bible reference and wrap this bit of code around it:
<a href="javascript:bible('BIBLE REFERENCE')">BIBLE REFERENCE</a>
Where “BIBLE REFERENCE” is the Scriptural reference. It’s the same code every time, I don’t have to look up each passage and cut and paste the link, and I get the same results every time. And with TextMate (the ultra-cool, mega-powerful text editing tool), I have a snippet set up to insert that code automatically with a keystroke combination. So, all I have to do is highlight the passage, keystroke CONTROL-J and viola! Bravo, Aaron! Todah rabba!
Update Monday, September 4, 2006:
Aaron has agreed to make this script freely available to anyone who would like to use it on their website. I’m including it here as a download for anyone who can benefit from it.
Download free the Bible Reference Javascript here:
Bible Reference Javascript