SBL Handbook of Style

This guide exists to help Lincoln Christian University students utilize The SBL Handbook of Style, 2nd Edition to write research papers. The SBL Handbook indicates it is a supplement to the Chicago Manual of Style/Turabian specifically for the field of biblical studies. This guide does not take the place of owning and referencing a complete copy of this manual.  Instead, this guide serves to provide specific guidelines adopted or suggested by Lincoln Christian University for our campus

Please note that the examples listed here do not conform to the spacing guidelines found in The SBL Handbook of Style due to the variations in the size of computer and device screens. See the Formatting page for an exact example.

Zotero (pronounced "zoh-TAIR-oh") is an application that collects, manages, and cites research sources. It's easy to use, connects with your web browser to download sources, and best of all it's free.

Zotero allows you to attach PDFs, notes and images to your citations, organize them into collections for different projects, and create bibliographies.

SBL provides the following standard sequence for publication information:

• Author(s) listed last name first or editor(s) in the absence of an author
• Title of chapter or journal article
• Title of book or journal
• Names of other individuals who contributed to the book such as editor or translator
• Edition
• Volume(s)
• Series title and/or volume number
• Publication information
• Volume and/or page numbers
• Electronic source information

Additional information about items will appear in the specific descriptions and examples throughout this guide. 

The SBL Handbook Style: Explanations, Clarifications, and Expansions is a blog written by SBL staff which highlights changes and updates that will be incorporated into a future 3rd edition.