Footnote Style for PRSt

[What follows are examples to cover the most common forms used and errors made by our authors. It is not meant to be exhaustive. If you are uncertain about proper footnote or do not find an appropriate form below, be sure firstto consult The SBL Handbook of Style (Peabody, Mass.: Hendricksen,1999; call # PN 147.S26 1999), supplemented by The Chicago Manual of Style: Fourteenth Edition, Revised and Expanded (1993).]

General Information

  • For PRStsubmissions—the main text should be double-spaced. Margins should be at least 1 inche all around. Never fully justify your document; always leave text ragged right. Block quotations should use the same font and point size as the main text and should be indented .5 inches from the left and right margins and single spaced.
  • The editors strongly prefer that contributions working in the biblical languages use a Unicode Greek and/or Hebrew font (such as the SBL Greek and SBL Hebrew fonts available from the Society of Biblical Literature ( Further, Hebrew text should generally be unpointed, except which it is absolutely critical to one’s argument that the vocalization be indicated. Other Masoretic marks should also be avoided.
  • “As a general rule the sequence of publishing information (that given inside parentheses in a note) is as follows: editor; translator; number of volumes; edition; series; city; publisher; date. Colons precede page numbers in journal articles, and colons separate volume and page numbers” (SBL Handbook, §7.1.1; p. 40).
  • “Whenever possible, the author’s or editor’s first name (not just an initial) should be provided. A space should always be left between initials” (SBL Handbook, §7.1.2; p. 40).
  • “Avoid using f. and ff. for ‘following’ pages; give actual page ranges” (SBL Handbook, §7.1.5; p. 46).
  • Use en dashes (–), not hyphens (-) to indicate page number ranges in footnotes, as well as biblical verse ranges and date ranges (see SBL Handbook §3.1.1.5; p. 6).
  • Do not use “ibid.” but use a shortened form of the citation (author’s last name, title, page[s].).
  • Some possessive rules:
  • Add –’s to singular nouns that end in –s. (E.g., Henry James’s novels reward the patient reader.)
  • But the possessive of the names Jesus and Moses is traditionally formed by adding an apostrophe alone. (E.g., Jesus’ disciples were sleepy; Moses’ calling was unique.)
  • Add only an apostrophe to plural nouns ending in –s. (E.g., The Jameses’ talents are extraordinary; the Yankees’ victories are fixed.)
  • Names of more than one syllable with an unaccented ending pronounced eez are exceptions based on euphony. (E.g., Aristophanes’ plays are funny.)
  • “Books of the Bible cited without chapter or chapter and verse should be spelled out in the main text. Books of the Bible cited with chapter or chapter and verse should be abbreviated, unless they come at the beginning of the sentence All occurrences of biblical books in parentheses and footnotes should be abbreviated” (SBL Handbook §8.2; pp. 71–72). (E.g., “First Corinthians 5:6 is a crucial text” not “1 Corinthians 5:6 is a crucial text.”)

One Author (book, magazine, and journal)[1]

Richard B. Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989), 3–29.

D. G. Hart, “Is High-Church Presbyterianism an Oxymoron?” Touchstone 13, no. 10 (December 2000): 20–29.

Claudia Setzer, “Excellent Women: Female Witnesses to the Resurrection,” JBL 116 (1997): 259–72, esp. p. 266 n. 17.

Editor, Translator, or Compiler as “Author”

Anthony B. Tortelli, ed., Sociology Approaching the Twenty-first Century (Los Angeles: Peter and Sons, 1991), 443.

Robert A. Kraft and George W. E. Nickelsburg, eds., Early Judaism and Its Modern Interpreters (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986), xii.

Kraft and Nickelsburg, Early Judaism, xii.[2]

Wilhelm Egger, How to Read the New Testament: An Introduction to Linguistic and Historical-Critical Methodology (trans. P. Heinegg; Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1996), 28.

Editor, Translator, or Compiler with an Author

John Stuart Mill, Autobiography and Literary Essays (ed. John M. Robinson and Jack

Stillinger; Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1980), 15.

Article in an Edited Volume

Harold W. Attridge, “Jewish Historiography,” in Early Judaism and Its Modern Interpreters (ed. R. A. Kraft and G. W. E. Nickelsburg: Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986), 311–43.

Attridge, “Jewish Historiography,” 314–17.

Authors of Foreword and Introductions Not Written by the Author

Mark Harris, introduction to With the Procession, by Henry Fuller (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965), iv-xii.

Harris, “Introduction,” iv-ix.

Edition: Subsequent Editions

James B. Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (3d ed.; Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969), xxi.

Joseph Blekinsopp, A History of Prophecy in Israel (rev. and enl. ed.; Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox, 1996), 81.

Halsey Stevens, The Life and Music of Bela Bartok (rev. ed.; New York: Oxford

University Press, 1964), 128–29.

Modern Editions of the Classics (Loeb Classical Library [Greek and Latin])[3]

Josephus, Ant. 2.233–235.

Josephus, Ant. 2.233–235 (Thackeray, LCL).[4]

Reprint Editions (in public domain and recent)

Albert Schweitzer, J. S. Bach (trans. Ernest Newman; 1911; repr., New York: Dover Publications, 1966), 134–56.

John Van Seters, In Search of History: Historiography in the Ancient World and the Origins of Biblical History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983; repr., Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1997), 35.

Multivolume Works: Citing the Work as a Whole (with author or editor)

Muriel St. Clare Byrne, ed., The Lisle Letters (6 vols.; Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981).

Bryne, ed., Lisle Letters, 4:125.

Multivolume Works: Citing a Particular Work

William Farmwinkle, Humor of the American Midwest (vol. 2 of Survey of American Humor;Boston: Plenum Press, 1983), 132.

Farmwinkle, Humor, 2:132.

A Chapter within a Titled Volume in a Multivolume Edited Work

Richard Bauckham, “The Acts of Paul As a Sequel to Acts,” in The Book of Acts in Its Ancient Literary Setting (ed. Bruce W. Winter and Andrew D. Clarke; vol. 1 of The Book of Acts in Its First Century Setting, ed. Bruce W. Winter; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993), 105–52.

Bauckham, “Sequel to Acts,” in Acts (ed. Winter and Clarke), 1:107.

Thomas E. Peck, “General Principles Touching the Worship of God,” in Miscellanies of Rev. Thomas E. Peck (ed. T. C. Johnson; Richmond, Va.: The Presbyterian Committee of Publication, 1895), 1:78–89.

Series

John Calvin, The Institutes of the Christian Religion (ed. John T. McNeill; trans. Ford Lewis Battles; 2 vols.; LCC; Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1960).

Richard B. Hays, The Faith of Jesus Christ: An Investigation of the Narrative Substructure of Galatians 3:1–4:11 (SBLDS 56; Chico, Calif.: Scholars Press, 1983), 209.

Christopher D. Stanley, “The Social Environment of ‘Free’ Biblical Quotations in the New Testament,” in Early Christian Interpretation of the Scriptures of Israel: Investigations and Proposals (ed. C. A. Evans and J. A. Sanders; JSNTSup 148; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997), 18–27.

An Unpublished Dissertation or Thesis

Lee E. Klosinski, “Meals in Mark” (Ph.D. diss., The Claremont Graduate School, 1988), 22–44.

Klosinski, “Meals,” 23.

An Internet Publication with a Print Counterpart[5]

Charles Truehart, “Welcome to the NextChurch,” Atlantic Monthly 278 (August 1996): 37–58. Cited 5 May 1997. Online:

Truehart, “Next Church,” 37.

An Internet Publication without a Print Counterpart

Matthew Thomas Farrell, “History of the Discovery of Thomas and Comments on the Text,” n.p. [cited 5 May 1997]. Online:

1

[1] For magazines and journals, only include the issue number with the volume number in a citation if the pagination is not consecutive from one issue to another (i.e., if the page numbering for each issue begins anew).

[2] Note the example of “short title” citation in a footnote.

[3] Further see SBL Handbook, §7.3.2; p. 57.

[4] If the translation is being quoted, it is appropriate to cite the translator.

[5] Further see Janice R. Walker and Todd Taylor, The Columbia Guide to Online Style (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998).