Using/Documenting Sacred Texts

To cite a sacred text in MLA format for the works cited page, give the title of the edition (from the title page), underlined (or italicized); the editor's name (if any); and publication information. The following example is from Diana Hacker's website.

Holy Bible: New Living Translation. Wheaton: Tyndale, 1996.

After quoting from a sacred text, cite the information about the passage, usually the book, chapter, and verse number (e.g. Exodus 3:24). This is called an in-text citation. See the example below.

The serpent is "cursed ... above all cattle, and above all wild animals" (Gen. 3:14).

Sometimes you might find it necessary to use an entire passage. If the quote you are using is more than three sentences long, the general rule is to indent the entire quote, leaving out quotation marks and single space it. E.g:

In Genesis, God metes out various punishments to Eve, Adam, and the serpent for disobeying his command:

The LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you above all cattle, and above all wild animals; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." To the woman he said, "I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you." And to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return." (Holy Bible, Gen. 3:14-19)

Notice the in-text citation has the title of the sacred text, the name of the specific book from the sacred text (if applicable), the chapter number (stanza/canto/sura number), and the verse number.