Below is a list of commonly used abbreviations readers will come across as they read posts on this site. These abbreviations in general follow the conventions laid out in The SBL Handbook of Style, second edition. This page will be updated periodically.
1 QH – 1 QHodayot (Dead Sea Scroll)
AB – Anchor Bible
ABS – Archaeology and Biblical Studies
ABD – Anchor Bible Dictionary. Edited by David Noel Freedman. 6 vols. New York: Doubleday, 1992.
ABRL – The Anchor Bible Reference Library
ANF – The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers Down to A.D. 325. Edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. 10 vols. 1885–1887. Available online at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.
Ant. – Josephus’s Jewish Antiquities.
ApOTC – Apollos Old Testament Commentary
AYBRL – Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library
b. Ber. – Tractate Berakot (Babylonian Talmud)
BDAG – Danker, Frederick W., Walter Bauer, William F. Arndt, and F. Wilbur Gingrich. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 3rd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.
BDB – Brown, Francis, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs. A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament. Oxford: Clarendon, 1907.
BECNT – Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament.
BHGNT – Baylor Handbook on the Greek New Testament.
Byz. – Byzantine
CAT – Dietrich, M., O. Loretz, and J. Sanmartin, eds. The Cuneiform Alphabetic Texts from Ugarit, Ras Ibn Hani and Other Places. Munster: Ugarit-Verlag, 1995.
CGL – Diggle, J., et. al., The Cambridge Greek Lexicon. 2 vol. Cambridge University Press, 2021.
ConBNT – Coniectanea Biblical: New Testament Series
DCH – Clines, David J. A., ed. Dictionary of Classical Hebrew. 9 vols. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix, 1993–2016.
ESV – English Standard Version of the Bible
FCB – Feminist Companion to the Bible
FJTC – Flavius Josephus: Translation and Commentary
FOTL – Forms of the Old Testament Literature
HB – Hebrew Bible
HBT – Horizons in Biblical Theology
Hermeneia – Hermenia: A Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible
IBC – Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching
*Irenaeus – For abbreviations of Irenaeus’s works, see The SBL Handbook of Style, second edition (SBL Press, 2014), 154.
JBL – Journal of Biblical Literature
*Josephus – For abbreviations of Josephus’s works, see The SBL Handbook of Style, second edition (SBL Press, 2014), 130. This list is also available online.
JSHJ – Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus
JSNTSup – Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series.
JTS – Journal of Theological Studies.
Justin Martyr – For abbreviations for Justin Martyr’s work, see The SBL Handbook of Style, second edition (SBL Press, 2014), 158.
*Lactantius – For abbreviations of Lactantius’s works, see The SBL Handbook of Style, second edition (SBL Press, 2014), 158.
LCC – Library of Christian Classics
LCL – Loeb Classical Library
LNTS – The Library of New Testament Studies
LS – Liddell, Henry George, and Robert Scott. An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon: Founded upon the Seventh Edition of Liddell and Scott’s Greek-English Lexicon. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1889.
LSJ – Liddell, Henry George, Robert Scott, and Henry Stuart Jones. A Greek-English Lexicon. 9th ed. with revised supplement. Oxford: Clarendon, 1996.
LW – Martin Luther, Luther’s Works. Edited by J. Pelikan and H.T. Lehman. Philadelphia: Muhlenberg, 1955-1976.
KJV – King James Version of the Bible
𝔐 – Majority Text
Ms/Mss – Manuscript/Manuscripts
MGS – Montanari, Franco. 2015. The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek. Edited by Madeleine Goh and Chad Schroeder. Leiden: Brill.
NA28 – Novum Testament Graece, Nestle-Aland, 28th ed.
NAC – New American Commentary
NASB – New American Standard Bible
NCB – New Century Bible Commentary
NCBC – New Cambridge Bible Commentary
NHMS – Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies
NICNT – New International Commentary on the New Testament
NICOT – New International Commentary on the Old Testament
NIGTC – New International Greek Testament Commentary
NIV – New International Version of the Bible
NovT – Novum Testamentum
NovTSup – Supplements to Novum Testamentum
NRSV – New Revised Standard Version of the Bible
NRSVue – New Revised Standard Version of the Bible Updated Edition
NT – New Testament
NTS – New Testament Studies
NTL – New Testament Library
OAM – Cohen, Shaye J. D., Robert Goldenberg, and Hayim Lapin, eds. The Oxford Annotated Mishnah: A New Translation of the Mishnah with Introduction and Notes. 3 vols. Oxford University Press, 2022. Note: As far as I have been able to determine, SBL has not yet decided how they wish to have The Oxford Annotated Mishnah abbreviated. “OAM” is therefore my own choice until SBL decides.
Od. – Odyssey (Homer)
OEANE – The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East. Edited by Eric M. Meyers. 5 vols. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
OT – Old Testament
Paideia – Paideia Commentaries on the New Testament
𝔓 – Papyrus
*Philo of Alexandria – For abbreviations of Philo’s works, see The SBL Handbook of Style, second edition (SBL Press, 2014), 129-130. This list is also available online.
QC – Qumran Chronicle
SBLGNT – The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition
SBLStBL – Society of Biblical Literature Studies in Biblical Literature
SHBC – Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary
SP – Sacra Pagina
STDJ – Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah
*Tertullian – For abbreviations of Tertullian’s works, see The SBL Handbook of Style, second edition (SBL Press, 2014), 167-168.
TLNT – Theological Lexicon of the New Testament. Ceslas Spicq. Translated and edited by James D. Ernest. 3 vols. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1994.
TLOT – Theological Lexicon of the Old Testament. Edited by Ernst Jenni, with assistance from Claus Westermann. Translated by Mark E. Biddle. 3 vol. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1997.
TR – Textus Receptus
UBS5 – The Greek New Testament, United Bible Societies, 5th ed.
VCSup – Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae
WAW – Writings from the Ancient World
WBC – Word Biblical Commentary
WUNT – Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament
ZNW – Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde der älteren Kirche (English: Journal for New Testament Studies and the Ancient Church)
The Amateur Exegete 