Skip to Main Content

Citation Station Online

The SBL Handbook of Style

The SBL Handbook of Style

Citation Information

Below is a selected list of reference examples for SBL Style. For full reference and citation information, please visit their Student Supplement document or see the formatting guide created by Dr. Johnson. 

SBL

Bibliographies for Notes Style

Type Example

Book by a Single Author

Talbert, Charles H. Reading John: A Literary and Theological commentary on the Fourth Gospel and the Johannine Epistles. New York: Crossroad, 1992.
 

Titled Book in Series

Cogan, Mordechai, and Hayim Tadmor. II Kings: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. AB 11. New York: Doubleday, 1998.
 

Journal Article Layerle, Blake. “John Chrysostom on the Gaze.” JECS 1 (1993): 159-74.
 
Article in Encyclopedia or Volume of Essays Attridge, Harold A. “Jewish Historiography.” Pages 311-43 in Early Judaism and Its Modern Interpreters. Edited by R. A. Kraft and G. W. E. Nickelsburg. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986.
 
LOEB Classical Library Tacitus, Cornelius. The Histories and Annals. Translated by C. H. Moore and J. Jackson. 4 vols. LOEB Classical Library. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1937.
 

Bibliographies for Author-Date Style

Type Example
Book by a Single Author

Wilder, Amos. 1939. Eschatology and Ethics in the Teaching of Jesus. New York: Harper and Bros.
 

Titled Book in Series

Cogan, Mordechai, and Hayim Tadmor. 1988. II Kings: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary.  AB 11. New York: Doubleday. 
 

Journal Article

Leyerle, Blake. 1993. “John Chrysostom on the Gaze.” JECS 1:159-74.
 

Article in Encyclopedia or Volume of Essays

Stendahl, K. 1962. “Biblical Theology, Contemporary.” Pages 418-32 in vol. 1 of Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible. Edited by G. A. Butterick. 5 vols. Nashville: Abingdon.
 

LOEB Classical Library

Tacitus, Cornelius. 1937. The Histories and the Annals. Translated by C. H. Moore and J. Jackson. 4 vols. LOEB Classical Library. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
 

Special Notes

  1. Biblical Citations should be given with Biblical book, chapter and verses (*not* with page numbers in their particular edition, unless what they are citing is the notes), ex. 2 Kgs 11:1-20. When citing just the chapter: 2 Kings 11. See the SBL Handbook beginning on page 117 for more information on abbreviations.
  2. If citing notes in a Study Bible, then you need to find the *author* of the *notes* for that particular section (i.e. not just the editor), ex. Wilson, Robert R. 1993. "1 Kings, 2 Kings."  Pages 509-604 in The HarperCollins Study Bible: New Revised Standard Version with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books.  Edited by Wayne Meeks. New York: HarperCollins.
  3. For efficiency, cut-down pages numbers (i.e. instead of 119-134 use 119-34, but not 14-7 instead of 14-17)