Quoting the Bible – Doing It Correctly

Quoting the Bible is a frequent occurrence for Christian writers. But do you know your limits on what you can quote, understand how to format your verse(s), and the know the copyright credit you must give?

As I edit writers’ manuscripts, I find errors in all these areas, so let’s dive in and look at each one.

The Copyright Law of the US controls all things involved in copyrighting, be it a book, song, movie, or other media. Section 107 gives guidance on what is considered fair use—what can be quoted without gaining permission from the copyright holder.

While I encourage you to read through these legal documents, the basics I want to cover here concern the amount you can quote without infringing on the rights of the copyright holder.

Every copyright holder of a version of the Bible has determined their fair use limitations. As the writer quoting those sources it is your responsibility to know those limitations and any further requirements.

Limits on Quoting the Bible

The Bible is a big book. Despite that, you can’t quote as many verses as you like. Each copyright holder has established their limits. Further, what you quote must fit within a certain percentage of the total text of your book. Yes, I know, it sounds complicated. Let’s look at a few examples (taken directly from the cited copyright holder).

Thomas Nelson permissions guidelines (New King James, Amplified Bible):

• No more than 250 verses quoted in total.
• Scripture does not make up more than 25% of the total text.
• Scripture does not account for an entire book of the Bible.

Zondervan permissions guidelines (New International Version):

• No more than 500 verses in total may be reproduced without permission.
• Total verses may not make up more than 25% of the work in which they are quoted.
• The verses quoted do not amount to a complete book of the Bible.

Tyndale House permissions guidelines (New Living Translation, The Message):

• The text of the HOLY BIBLE, NEW LIVING TRANSLATION (NLT), may be quoted in any form (written, visual, electronic, or audio) up to and inclusive of five hundred (500) verses without express written permission of the publisher, provided that the verses quoted do not account for more than 25 percent of the work in which they are quoted, and provided that a complete book of the Bible is not quoted.
• The text of The Message, may be quoted in any form (written, visual, electronic, or audio) up to and inclusive of five hundred (500) verses without written permission of the publisher, provided that the verses quoted do not account for more than 25 percent of the work in which they are quoted, and provided that a complete book of the Bible is not quoted.

As you can see, the numbers vary from owner to owner. What does seem to be consistent is that the amount you quote cannot be more than 25% of your total book or an entire book of the Bible. You might not come close to 250 or 500 quoted Bible verses, but it’s easier to cross that 25% threshold than you realize. Do the math!

Formatting Your Verse

In quoting the Bible, it is recommended that verses be formatted in roman type. That doesn’t mean the font Times New Roman; it simply means the text is straight up and down, not italicized. Many Bible translations use italics to indicate words added to the verse that weren’t in the original language. They do this to give greater clarity of understanding. However, those words should not be italicized when quoted in a manuscript.

In the poetic portions of the Bible, many verses fall on a separate line with the beginning word capitalized even if it is not the beginning of a new sentence. These verses do not need to be separate paragraphs. Capitalize only proper names, the first word of a sentence, and the first word of a direct quotation.

You can omit introductory words like And, Or, For, Therefore, But, and Verily.

Use Arabic numerals for the books of the Bible, not roman numerals: 2 Timothy, not II Timothy.

Use a colon to separate chapter and verse, with no space between the verse and colon. 2 Timothy 1:2.

Do not use verses numbers within your quotation.

When the words Lord and God appear in all caps, they should not be written in cap-and-small-cap style (LORD GOD). The one exception to this is Zondervan, the publisher of the New International Version. They prefer cap-small-cap style. (See my video How to Make Small Caps in Scrivener and Word.)

For example: Gen. 2:7a, “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground.” (The internet can’t handle small caps, so we’re stuck with all caps.)

I must admit, I prefer using the cap-small-cap when it appears in the Old Testament. Many other businesses do also as witnessed by how they treat the words in their own books and newsletters. That’s called “house style.”

Don’t forget to include quotation marks. When you have quotation marks within quotation marks is where things can get tricky.

Sample: Gen. 2:16 NKJV as it appears in the Bible: And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat.”

However, because you are quoting it you must use opening and closing quotation marks. That means quotation marks within the verse now get changed to single quotes. “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat.’ ”

Quotation marks must have an opening “ and a closing ” mark. If you look closely at the sample above you will see the closing single and double. I put a space between them for ease of seeing them. However, do not include that space in your manuscript.

You can give the Bible reference of what you quote in two ways: in running text or parenthetically at the end of the verse(s).

Examples

Running text: Genesis 2:16 tells us, “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat.’”

Parenthetical: “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat’” (Genesis 2:16 NKJV).

When the verse reference appears at the end of verse, do not include verse end punctuation unless it is a question mark or exclamation mark. Put sentence period at the very end. This might seem like double end punctuation, but it isn’t.

My pdf download “How to Correctly Quote the Bible” includes all the information included in this blog post plus the copyright owners for 18 versions of the Bible, their fair use guidelines, and their required permissions notices. Get your copy today for only $3.99 and always have the information you need right at your fingertips.

Giving Copyright Credit

Think about it. Someone is giving you the right to copy their work. So, on the copyright page of your book, you must give the copyright credit for all the versions of the Bible that you quote in your book.

Examples, direct from the copyright owner:

• Scriptures marked KJV are taken from the KING JAMES VERSION (KJV): KING JAMES VERSION, public domain.
• Scripture quotations from The Authorized (King James) Version. Rights in the Authorized Version in the United Kingdom are vested in the Crown. Reproduced by permission of the Crown’s patentee, Cambridge University Press.
• Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Copyright Owners

• Anyone can quote as much as they like from the public domain version of the King James Bible.
• King James (KJV) the Authorized Version, Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom.
• New International Version, Zondervan.
• New Living Translation (NLT), Tyndale House.
• The Amplified Bible, Thomas Nelson.

I’ve given the more popular versions here, but you can do a Google search or use what I consider the easiest way to find the info you need.

How to Find the Copyright Owner

1. Go to the Bible search tool of your choice. I use BlueLetterBible.org and Biblegateway.com.
2. Select a verse and Bible version you want to quote
3. Scroll to the bottom of the search results.
4. There you will find the copyright notice required and a link to the copyright holder. Click on the link.
5. Most often this link will take you to those who control granting permissions.
6. Scroll to the bottom of that page and look for “Permissions.” This link will take you to the permissions page that outlines what you can and can’t do.

Quoting the Bible may seem complicated, but it really isn’t once you know the basics.

Have a question I didn’t cover? Leave it in the comments and I’ll be sure to answer.