Overview
The Search feature in the Olive Tree app helps you quickly find Bible verses, phrases, or words in any resource you’ve downloaded to your Library. With our latest update, you can now find passages related to the ideas or questions you’re exploring in Scripture too!
When you enter a term, the app displays two kinds of results on the same screen:
- Smart Results – Verses that go beyond exact word matches, surfacing passages connected to the meaning or topic of your search, even if the wording or translation differs.
- Exact Results – Verses that contain the precise words you typed.
Smart Results appear at the top of the list, followed by Exact Results, so you can explore both in a single search.
Search Basics
To start a search, tap the search icon on the toolbar. If the search icon is not visible, tap anywhere on the screen to bring it up.
Tap in the search box and begin typing the term you want to search for. This can be a word, phrase, or Bible verse (e.g. John 1:1). As soon as you start typing, a list of search terms will begin to auto complete. Tap on the desired search term from the list and the search results will appear.
Scroll through the results until you find the verse you're looking for. Tap the entry to navigate to that passage.
Advanced Search Options
If you’d like to narrow or refine your search, select the Search settings icon at the top of the Search window.
From here you can:
- Filter Results by Book – limit results to specific Bible books.
- Set a Search Range – use a preset range (e.g., Prophets, Epistles) or create your own custom range.
- Search History – revisit or clear previous searches.
- Smart Search – toggle smart search on/off and view smart search usage.
- Add Search Command – combine terms with operators such as AND, OR, or ALL.
- Search Options – choose Plain Text (for modern-language Bibles) or Morphology (for original-language resources).
Below you'll find more detailed information and tutorials about each section in the Search Options.
Filter Results by Book
In the search settings, tap 'Filter Results by Book'. This option allows you to narrow the search range to find results in a specific Bible book or books. Tap the square next to any Bible book to add these books to the search filter.
Tap on the arrow in the upper left corner once to get back to the Search Features screen and then tap it again to get back to the search results list. Now you will see your search filter reflected below the search box:
To clear the search filter and revert to a 'Whole Bible' search, tap on 'Clear' in the Book Filter view.
Set A Search Range
In the search settings, tap 'Set a Search Range'. In this list, you will find pre-set search ranges, like 'Prophets' and 'All Epistles'.
You can also create and save a search range filter here by tapping 'Create Custom Search Range' at the top of the screen.
A new custom filter will be created. To assign a new title to your custom search range, tap 'My Custom Filter' in the box that includes Range Title to update the title.
Select the books of the Bible you want in your custom filter. Type a title in the 'Range Title' field and then tap the back button to save.
To edit a custom filter tap the 'i' icon to the right of the title.
Tap on any Search Filter in this list to apply it to your search. Tap the back arrow twice to get back to the search results with this search filter on.
To delete a custom search filter, select 'Edit'.
Tap the red 'minus' symbol that appears next to the custom filter.
Tap 'Delete' to confirm deletion.
Search History
The next option you will find under Search Options is Search History. Tap Search History to see a list of your previous searches. .
Tap on any result in the list and then tap the back arrow in the upper left corner to immediately bring up the results for that search again. If you want to clear your search history, tap 'Clear' in the upper right corner.
Smart Search
Tap 'Smart Search' for an option to turn off Smart Search. You can also see your Smart Search Usage. (Our Smart Search feature uses a paid service, so we limit daily use to keep it sustainable for all our users.)
Add Search Command
Tap 'Add Search Command' for a list of the commands you can use to make your search even more particular.
Tap the 'i' icon next to each available command for an explanation of how that particular command works, as well as some examples.
As an example, I want to search for 'faith AND love'. In the search box at the top of the screen, I type in the word 'grace' and then hit the command 'AND' from the list. This adds the command to the search box. I then type in 'truth'. Here is what my full search term looks like now:
Tap the Search button on the keyboard to execute the search. In this case, I have scrolled down to my "Exact Results" to view all of the verses in the ESV Bible which have the word 'faith' and 'love'.
We also have a Help article that goes into more depth about search commands in an article about Advanced Search Syntax. Find that article here.
Search Options
The last advanced search option is also called Search Options. When you tap on this option, you will have a choice to Search on Plain Text or Search on Morphology.
When you are searching in a Bible text in a current language (e.g. English, Portuguese, etc.), we recommend that you use the 'Search on Plain Text' option.
The 'Search on Morphology' option is used for original language resources that are tagged morphologically, such as a Strong's Bible or a parsed text (e.g. BHS Parsed, NA28 Parsed, etc.). When this setting is turned on, you can do a search for a Greek or Hebrew word and the search results will show all locations that word is used, regardless of tense (past, future, present, etc.).
In this example, I am searching the ESV with Strong's for the Greek word 'blessed', which looks like this: μακάριος. Since I have chosen 'Search on Morphology', I get these results:
We also have a Help article specifically on Morphological Search. You can access it here for more details about how to make use of this advanced search feature.
Conclusion
We hope this article on the search feature has been helpful for you! If you have more questions about search, don't hesitate to reference the Advanced Search Syntax article here or contact our Customer Support team here.