How to Cite the Bible in APA 7th Edition

To cite the Bible in APA 7, treat the version you read as a book with no author: the title of that version goes in the author slot, followed by the year of the version, the publisher, and a URL if you read it online. In the text, name the version the first time and point to the book, chapter, and verse rather than a page number, like this: (King James Bible, 1769/2017, Matthew 22:39).

That second half surprises people less than the first. The genuinely new thing is that APA 7 wants a reference list entry at all. Under the 6th edition, scripture was handled as a classical work and never appeared in the reference list; you cited chapter and verse in the text and stopped there. The 7th edition dropped that exemption, and a paper written from a 6th-edition habit will now be missing an entry its marker expects.

This guide covers the reference format from Section 10.2 of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.), the canonical-numbering rule from Section 8.28, the two-date pattern that trips up nearly everyone, and worked examples for print Bibles, online Bibles, study Bibles with an editor, and the Qur'an.

The official APA 7 rule

Section 10.2 of the Publication Manual covers religious works. The instruction is short: a religious work is usually treated as a work with no author, so the title moves into the author position. From there it follows the ordinary book format, or the webpage format if you read it on a website.

Format, print:

Title of Version. (Year). Publisher.

Format, online:

Title of Version. (Year). Site Name. URL (Original work published Year)

Example:

King James Bible. (2017). King James Bible Online. https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/ (Original work published 1769)

Four things in that entry are worth naming, because each one is a decision you will have to repeat for whatever version you actually used.

The title is the version, and it is italicized. King James Bible sits where an author's surname would sit. This is the same mechanic APA uses for any source with no author, and it is why a Bible sorts in your reference list under the first significant word of its title. A translator's name has no bearing on where it lands.

The italics are narrower than they look. Italicize the title of the specific version you are citing. When you refer to the Bible in a general way, or to Bible versions as a category, leave the italics off. "The Bible is quoted throughout the dissertation" takes no italics. "The Green Bible renders the passage differently" does.

The date is the version's date, not the text's. APA wants the publication year of the edition in your hands. Nobody is asking you to date the composition of Deuteronomy.

Two dates appear when the version is a republication. The King James Bible Online published its 2017 version of a 1769 text, so 2017 is the reference date and 1769 goes in the "Original work published" parenthetical at the very end, outside any punctuation.

What changed from APA 6

Worth stating plainly, because a lot of the guidance still circulating online predates 2020 and will steer you wrong:

The in-text half barely moved. The reference list half reversed. If a guide tells you the Bible never goes in your reference list, it is describing the 6th edition, or it is describing a different style entirely: SBL and Turabian genuinely do keep scripture out of the bibliography, which is part of why this confusion is so durable in religion and divinity departments where two styles are in use at once.

In-text citations: version first, then chapter and verse

Section 8.28 handles the in-text side. Its rule is that for material with canonically numbered sections, you cite the canonical numbering instead of a page number. Chapter and verse are stable across every printing of every translation. A page number is an accident of one publisher's typesetting, and it will not help a reader holding a different edition.

First mention. Identify the version. Introduce any abbreviation you plan to reuse in brackets, exactly the way you would introduce an abbreviation for a group author:

(Holy Bible, New Living Translation [NLT], 1996/2015, Psalm 37:4)

Afterwards. The short form carries the rest of the paper:

(NLT, 1996/2015, Psalm 37:4)

Narrative form. The version name moves into your sentence and the rest stays in parentheses:

The King James Bible (1769/2017) is the version cited throughout this section.

Paraphrase. Drop the verse locator only if you are genuinely characterizing the whole work, which is rare. A paraphrase of a specific passage still points at that passage:

(King James Bible, 1769/2017, Matthew 22:39)

The colon between chapter and verse does the same job a comma does between a year and a page number. It needs no "p." and no "v."

Worked examples

1. An online Bible

This is APA's own example and the one to imitate if you read scripture on a website:

King James Bible. (2017). King James Bible Online. https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/ (Original work published 1769)

In-text, first: (King James Bible, 1769/2017, Matthew 22:39) In-text, after: (King James Bible, 1769/2017, Romans 12:2)

The site name occupies the publisher slot. Both years appear in the text, earlier first, separated by a slash.

2. A print Bible with one date

When you are working from a physical Bible that is not presented as a republication of a dated earlier version, the entry collapses to the plain book shape:

The Green Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (2008). HarperOne.

In-text: (The Green Bible, 2008, Luke 12:49)

One date, one slash fewer. Notice the in-text form shortens the title; the full subtitle belongs in the reference, and the text just needs enough of the title to find the entry.

3. A study Bible with an editor

A study Bible is a different kind of object. Someone assembled the notes, the essays, and the cross-references, and that person is credited on the title page. Once there is an editor, the no-author rule stops applying and you are citing an edited book:

Barker, K. (Ed.). (1985). The NIV study Bible: New International Version. Zondervan.

In-text: (Barker, 1985, Genesis 1:20)

This distinction matters more than it sounds. If you are quoting scripture, you want the version entry from example 1 or 2. If you are quoting a study note, an introduction, or an editorial essay printed alongside scripture, you are quoting the editor, and the citation should say so. Students lose marks for attributing a commentator's interpretation to the text itself.

4. The Qur'an in translation

A translated religious work keeps the title in the author position and adds the translator in parentheses:

The Qur'an (M. A. S. Abdel Haleem, Trans.). (2010). Oxford University Press.

In-text: (The Qur'an, 2010, 5:3-4)

Qur'anic citation uses surah and ayah numbers, which behave like chapter and verse and slot into the same position.

5. A classical work, for contrast

Classical works look similar and follow a slightly different pattern, so it is worth seeing them side by side:

Plato. (1940). The republic (A. D. Lindsay, Trans.). J.M. Dent and Sons. (Original work published ca. 380 B.C.E.)

In-text: (Plato, ca. 380 B.C.E./1940, pp. 38-40)

Plato has a named author, so the title stays out of the author slot. And because The Republic is cited by Stephanus number or by page depending on the edition, page numbers are acceptable here in a way they are not for scripture.

6. Two translations in one paper

Comparative work needs both versions in the reference list and needs the text to make clear which one is speaking at any moment. Give each its own entry, and never let a bare verse reference float without a version attached:

(King James Bible, 1769/2017, Isaiah 7:14) (The Green Bible, 2008, Isaiah 7:14)

The abbreviation shortcut is a liability here. If your argument turns on the difference between two renderings, spell out enough of each name that a reader skimming one paragraph knows which text is which.

7. A quotation with a verse range

Ranges use an en dash or hyphen between the first and last verse, and the range stays inside the same parentheses as the year:

(King James Bible, 1769/2017, Matthew 5:3-10)

For a citation spanning chapters, give both chapter and verse on each side of the range. For non-contiguous verses, separate them with commas inside one chapter and with semicolons across chapters. These conventions come from biblical-studies practice. APA asks only for the canonical numbering and does not legislate the punctuation of a verse range.

8. A Bible you read in an app

APA has no dedicated example for a Bible app, and that is a genuine gap in the manual. The defensible choice is to treat it as an online version: use the version name the app itself displays, the copyright year the app shows for that version, and the organization behind the app in the publisher slot, with the URL of its web version if one exists. Then be consistent for every app-sourced citation in the paper. If your department has a style sheet, it outranks this.

Special cases

The version has no date

Use n.d. in the date position, exactly as you would for any source with no date. Before you do, check the copyright page and the site footer, because Bible publishers date their translations carefully, so a date you cannot see is usually a date you have not found yet.

The original date is unknown or disputed

Leave it out. APA's guidance for classical and religious works is to omit an original publication date you cannot establish, which leaves you with the single-date form from example 2. Do not approximate a date for a translation lineage you have not verified.

You are quoting a commentary, not scripture

Cite the commentary as an ordinary book or journal article under its author's name. A commentary that quotes a verse is a secondary source for that verse. For the verse itself, go to a Bible and cite the Bible.

The Apocrypha and deuterocanonical books

These are cited exactly like any other book of the version you used, because they are part of that version. The relevant question is which version you cited, since canons differ; a reader who looks up your reference in a Bible that omits Sirach needs the version name in your citation to understand why.

Your instructor says not to use a reference entry

Do what your instructor says, and say so in a footnote or a cover note if it is a graded style question. Departments in religion, theology, and biblical studies frequently run SBL or Turabian conventions alongside APA, and an instructor asking for in-text-only scripture citation is applying a real convention from a different style. The APA 7 rule is the one above; your marker is the one grading it.

Common mistakes and how to avoid them

• Leaving the Bible out of the reference list. The single most common error in 2026, because the 6th-edition rule lived online for a decade. APA 7 requires the entry. Add it.
• Citing a page number. A page number from your printing means nothing in anyone else's. Section 8.28 asks for book, chapter, and verse; give it those.
• Naming no version at all. "(John 3:16)" tells a reader nothing about which of dozens of English translations produced the wording you just quoted. Name the version on first use.
• Italicizing the word Bible everywhere. Italics belong on the title of a specific version. Generic mentions of the Bible stay in roman type.
• Putting only one year in a republished citation. Both years belong in the in-text citation, earlier first, separated by a slash. Dropping the original date hides the fact that you are reading a modernized text.
• Attributing a study note to scripture. If the sentence you are citing was written by an editor in the margin, the editor is the author. Example 3 is the entry you want.
• Letting a reference manager guess. Zotero and Mendeley usually import a Bible as a generic book and drop the "Original work published" parenthetical, because no metadata field maps to it. Check that line by hand every time, and see our guide on fixing citation errors for the rest of the cleanup.

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