How to Cite the Bible and Other Religious Texts

Sacred texts are cited differently from other books for a practical reason. They exist in hundreds of editions with different page numbers, but the division into books, chapters and verses is the same everywhere. A citation to John 3:16 works in any copy. What does change between copies is the wording, so every style asks you to name the version or translation you quoted.

What to Collect

• The version or translation (New Revised Standard Version, King James Version, New International Version)
• For a printed or online edition: title, editor or translator if named, publisher and year
• Book, chapter and verse for each passage
• URL, if you used an online Bible

The worked examples are the ones the style authorities publish: APA's King James Bible and Bhagavad Gita references and the MLA Style Center's King James Version entries. The Qur'an example is M. A. S. Abdel Haleem's translation (Oxford University Press, 2004).

Quick Reference by Major Style

APA (7th Edition)

APA treats religious works as books with no author. Reference the edition you used. For a text that was originally published long ago, add the original date at the end when it is known.

In-text: (King James Bible, 1769/2017, Song of Solomon 8:6) and (The Qur'an, 2004, 2:255)

The first two references are APA's own examples. The title is italic in both the reference and the citation. Use the book, chapter and verse in place of a page number. APA explains that the online King James Bible was published in 2017 and is based on the 1769 version, which is why both years appear.

MLA (9th Edition)

In-text: name the book, chapter and verse in your sentence and put the title of the entry in parentheses. The MLA Style Center's example: Matthew 7.7 tells us, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you" (Bible).

The first entry above is the MLA Style Center's own. MLA separates chapter and verse with a period. The MLA Handbook lists standard abbreviations for the books of the Bible for use in parenthetical citations.

Chicago (18th Edition)

The Chicago Manual covers scripture in sections 14.138 to 14.141, titled "Biblical references—additional resource", "Bible chapter and verse", "Versions of the Bible" and "Other sacred works". The sections themselves sit behind the manual's subscription, and the free Citation Quick Guide has no scriptural example. The general approach is the one every style shares: cite book, chapter and verse instead of a page, and say which version you quoted.

Template for a note:

Check the manual, or your department's Chicago guide, for the abbreviations of biblical books and for whether your instructor wants the edition listed in the bibliography.

If you relied on the notes, maps or introduction in a study Bible, cite that material as you would a chapter in an edited book, because it has modern authors and editors.

Harvard (Cite Them Right)

Harvard guides based on Cite Them Right treat sacred texts as authorless works identified by book, chapter and verse.

In-text: (Genesis 4:3-8)

Practice varies more here than for most sources. The University of Leeds version of Harvard, for instance, lists only the title and version with no publication details (The Bible: authorised King James version), and its in-text example is (Genesis 4:3-8). Follow your own institution's guide where it gives a rule.

IEEE

The IEEE Reference Guide has no format for religious texts, which rarely appear in engineering writing. If you need one, adapt the book format and give the passage in the in-text citation:

In-text: [1, Gen. 4:3–8]

Versions and Translations

Different versions of the same verse can differ enough to change your argument, so the version is part of the citation.

• Standard abbreviations: KJV (King James Version), NIV (New International Version), NRSV (New Revised Standard Version), NRSVue (its updated edition), ESV (English Standard Version), NABRE (New American Bible, Revised Edition), NJPS (the Jewish Publication Society's Tanakh).
• One version throughout: name it once, at the first citation or in a sentence such as "All biblical quotations are from the NRSV."
• Several versions: name the version each time: (Ps. 23:1 KJV), (Ps. 23:1 NIV).

Online Bibles and Apps

Bible Gateway, YouVersion and similar. These sites host many translations. Cite the translation you read, not the site as a whole.

The MLA Style Center's guidance for an app or site with several translations: if you quote from one translation, list The Bible as the title, the translation as the version, and the app or site as a second container.

If you compare several translations from the same app, the Style Center suggests naming the translations in your prose and citing the app once, as the collection that contains them. In APA, follow the King James Bible Online pattern above: the title of the version, the year, the site name and the URL.

Other Religious and Classical Texts

The same approach applies to the Torah, the Talmud, the Bhagavad Gita, the Book of Mormon and the Dhammapada: reference the edition or translation you used, credit the translator, and point to passages with the text's own numbering (surah and verse, chapter and verse, tractate and folio). Classical works with standard numbering, such as Plato and Aristotle, follow the same logic.

Common Mistakes

• Giving a page number in place of book, chapter and verse
• Leaving out the version, or mixing versions without saying so
• Italicizing "Bible", "Qur'an" or the names of books (Genesis, Matthew) in running text
• Listing God, Moses, Paul or "Various" as the author
• Following APA 6 habits and leaving the Bible out of an APA 7 reference list
• Using roman numerals for books (II Kings). Current styles use arabic numerals (2 Kings).
• Writing "verse 16" in a parenthetical citation where the style expects 3:16 or 3.16

Sources for These Formats

• APA Style, "Religious Work References" (apastyle.apa.org)
• MLA Style Center, "How do I cite scriptural writings? And when do I use italics in referring to them?" and "How do I cite a Bible app with more than one translation?" (style.mla.org)
• The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th ed., sections 14.138 to 14.141 on scriptural references (chicagomanualofstyle.org)
• Pears and Shields, Cite Them Right; University of Leeds Library, "Religious text", Leeds Harvard referencing examples (library.leeds.ac.uk/referencing-examples/9/leeds-harvard/536/religious-text)
• IEEE Reference Guide, version 3.28.2025 (no dedicated format)

Students of theology and biblical studies are often asked to use the Society of Biblical Literature's style instead. See the SBL guide, and the APA, MLA, Chicago and Harvard guides for everything else.