by Katy Kauffman @KatyKauffman28

I’ve heard faculty at writers’ conferences say we need to know the rules before we break them. Well, yes. I like to use partial sentences once in a while to make a point. Really fun. And freeing. But at other times, the rules give me peace. I like knowing the guidelines for quoting Scripture, so I won’t get in trouble for not honoring copyrights.

I also like knowing that I am following a widely used source for formatting Christian writing—The Chicago Manual of Style. Publishers will say in their Submission Guidelines if they use something else, but otherwise this is a reliable source to follow.

So here are some tips for quoting Scripture that you may not have thought of before.

You don’t have to use the first word in a Bible verse, and you don’t need an ellipsis to indicate that.

Sounds rebellious, doesn’t it? Have you ever wanted to share a verse, but it began with a “but”? If your paragraph doesn’t warrant including the first word or phrase in a verse, it’s okay to leave it out. You don’t even have to put an ellipsis, according to The Chicago Manual of Style.¹ Here’s an example.

Original verse: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 8:5 NKJV).

Truncated quote: “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 8:5 NKJV).

If you don’t include the previous, contrasting verse (Romans 8:4), then the “but” in Romans 8:5 may seem out of place. It may feel awkward to leave it out, but a reader can look up any verse you quote and see the whole verse. We want to honor Scripture in all we do, but just be aware it’s “legal” to begin quoting a verse where you need to.

Of course, we do need an ellipsis if we leave out something in the middle of a verse. But it’s okay to leave out something at the beginning or end and not include an ellipsis.

Don’t put a period after abbreviated books of the Bible.

It seems natural to include that little period, doesn’t it? But it’s one less thing we have to type. Why is that?

The Chicago Manual of Style defers to The SBL Handbook of Style² for certain formatting rules related to Scripture, and this handbook calls for no period after an abbreviated book of the Bible.³

The first time we quote a verse, we need to spell out the Bible book name, but every other time in the same piece of writing, we can abbreviate it. The SBL Handbook of Style lists the correct abbreviations for all Bible books as well.

Stay within your Bible translation’s guidelines for how much of Scripture you can quote.

When we quote from NKJV, the Amplified® Bible, and NIV, our quotations can’t be more than 25% of our word count for a book or article. (Otherwise, we need to get written permission to quote more than that.) I often use the word count feature in Microsoft Word to make sure an article isn’t tiptoeing over the limit. I breathe a sigh of relief when I know an author has stayed within the copyright permissions of a Bible translation.

When we quote from NASB or CSB, Scripture needs to take up less than 50% of our word count. We have a little more wiggle room.

When you need to cite the copyright information for Bible translations in your books, visit BibleGateway.com for what to put on your flyleaf page. Search for your Bible verse, and you’ll see the copyright details listed under your verse. You can copy and paste these into your book and save yourself some time.

If you copy and paste Scripture from the internet, check your quotes for hidden characters.

When we pull quotes from the internet and paste them into a word processor, we may be bringing hidden characters into our writing. Not the funny or brooding kind. But the kind you can see when you turn on the “hidden characters” symbol (that backwards P button) on the computer.

These characters can wreak havoc in book design software and make the words in a quote “stick” together, creating odd-looking spacing. They look like a hollow circle and may appear higher between words than the character for a single space. Delete these hollow circles, and you’ll make editors and designers happy.

Did any of these tips surprise you? Which one do you think is the most helpful? Tell us in the comments below, and remember this, writer friend—every minute we take to make sure we’re quoting Scripture correctly, we honor God, show respect to the companies who preserve Bible translations, and help our readers find verses that can strengthen their walk with God and deepen their faith.

And that makes it all worth it.

1. The Chicago Manual of Style, Seventeenth Edition (Chicago, Ill.: The University of Chicago Press, 2017), 729.
2. Author’s Note: SBL stands for Society of Biblical Literature.
3. Patrick H. Alexander, ed., et al., The SBL Handbook of Style (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 1999), 73.

Katy Kauffman is an award-winning author, an editor of Refresh Bible Study Magazine, and a co-founder of Lighthouse Bible Studies. She loves connecting with writers and working alongside them in compilations, such as Feed Your Soul with the Word of God, Collection 1 which is a 2020 Selah Awards finalist. She recently started The Lighthouse Connection, a monthly writers’ newsletter including writing tips, inspiration to write, and news of submission opportunities.

In addition to online magazines, Katy’s writing can be found at CBN.com, thoughts-about-God.com, and three blogs on writing. She loves to spend time with family and friends, take acrylic painting classes online, and do yard work in the morning sun. Connect with her at her blog, Winning the Victory, and on Facebook and Twitter.