Turabian Bible Citation Examples

Studying Turabian Bible citation examples will help you understand how to format these sources for your school paper. Turabian style is the student version of the Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS). This shorter manual makes it easy for students writing humanities or science papers to create bibliographies.

Author/Date Citation Examples

Turabian or Chicago style formatting requires you include citations for biblical references within your text. You do not have to include the sources in your reference list or bibliography. Use either the full title of the version or a recognized abbreviation in your first citation. Format your author-date citation this way:

Parenthetical Citation Format

(Book Chapter:Verse [Version])

Example

Example

For subsequent citations, do not include the version unless you’re using a different one.

Notes/Bibliography Citation Examples

As you can see in these Bible citation examples, the Turabian notes-bibliography style is very similar to author-date, except you need to number your notes sequentially. The use of brackets is also different.

Notes Citation Format

#. Book Chapter:Verse (Version).

Example

Example

Other Rules for Turabian Bible Citations

When citing the Bible in Turabian style, keep these rules in mind:

• Never use page numbers for Bible citations.
• Use Arabic numerals (e.g., 1, 2, 3) for citing chapter and verse numbers, not Roman numerals.
• If you’re talking about a book in the Bible, such as Hebrews or Matthew, spell out the full name.

Example

Understanding Chicago/Turabian Styles

Commonly used while writing papers in humanities subjects like history and literature, the notes-bibliography style uses a system of footnotes or endnotes, combined with a bibliography. The author-date style uses a simpler format. As the name suggests, the author’s name is the first element, followed by the year of publication. The author-date style includes a list of references rather than a bibliography.