The SBL Style Manual

""The SBL Handbook of Style" is an astonishing book, a true 'one-stop' reference for authors preparing manuscripts in biblical studies and related fields. It covers an amazing range of topics, from what every literate scholar should know (but may not) to what only the most erudite expert in an obscure sub-field of the discipline would be likely to know. Do you need to know how to cite an internet publication? Whose job it is to prepare the index and secure permissions? How to alphabetize Abraham ibn Ezra (and why)? What the abbreviation "AAeg" stands for? It's all here. This volume should substantially reduce the incidence of tears and tantrums that so often beset the process of manuscript preparation. Before long biblical scholars will wonder how we ever got along without this indispensable reference work. Every graduate program should make "The SBL Handbook of Style" a required text." -Carol A. Newsom, Professor of Old Testament, Emory University " . . . A major service for the community of biblical scholars. This comprehensive but handy stylesheet, building on the base of the SBL guidelines, incorporates all that most authors and editors currently need to know about the technical dimensions of publishing activity, from commas and hyphens to abbreviations, from transliterations to forms of annotation. All that's left to authors is to come up with good ideas. All editors have to do is to learn what is here." --Harold W. Attridge, Lillian Claus Professor of New Testament, Yale Divinity School

Review :
""The SBL Handbook of Style" is precisely what is needed for the next generation or two or three of scholars in our field and for everybody in the chain from author to editor to printer, including all the half-steps in between. I hope that "The Handbook" will draw together everybody who publishes in this field to agree to adopt it as the bible for publishing scholarly works in our discipline. Having a uniform standard, and a detailed exposition of the rules and the whys and the wherefores of this intricate business, will go a long way to clarifying and simplifying the work of both writer and reader of these erudite products. I could not be more enthusiastic about a volume that I can recommend to one and all, and to which I can send innocent, ignorant, and recalcitrant authors and editors, and all the rest." --David Noel Freedman, Professor of History, and Chair in Hebrew Biblical Studies, University of California, San Diego Any scholarly writer or editor working extensively with biblical material should consult "The SBL Handbook of Style" (bibliog. 1.1), which offers excellent advice and numerous abbreviations." --"Chicago Manual of Style 15" at 17.246