Quoting Psalms without the "s"

[Marshall A. Fant]

Feature suggestion:

When i copy or import text into my Microsoft Word Docs, it normally isn’t a problem. 

The one issue I have is when I insert from the Psalms. It looks like this: 

 

Psalms 90:1 (NKJV)            Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.

2               Before the mountains were brought forth,

                  Or ever You had formed the earth and the world,

                  Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.

 

This is a problem for me, because when I quote the Psalms I am quoting Psalm (no s) 90:1-2, not Psalms 90:1-2. 

I don’t know if this would be an easy fix or not, but I really think it would be a nice touch to fix this so I don’t have to go back and erase every “s” at the end of my Psalm quotes. 

My Suggestion would be the drop the "s" when a single Psalm is being quoted but include it when the larger "Book of Psalms" is being referenced (in the Index of a Bible, etc.). 

 

(In the meantime, I might abbreviate my book names)

 

Thoughts?

[Abram K-J]

Agreed. See also some similar discussion here.

[Marshall A. Fant]

Thanks! I had looked through the forums but didn't see your post. Good to see others have already noted this. 

[Ιακοβ]

You have to work out if you think of 'Psalms' as a title (a proper noun), or a simple noun. If 'Psalms' is a title, you wouldn't modify it when you are quoting it in a reference. If you think of 'Psalms' as a basic noun, then you would call each individual Psalm a Psalm.

 

I tend to think of 'Psalms' as a reference to the title of the book, and hence leave it with the 's'. (The same goes for Proverbs, do we say 'Proverb 1:4' ?

[ukfraser]

most of the rest of the bible has the text split into chapters and verses so it makes sense to include the title.

 

In the book of psalms each psalm is an entity in itself with them being collected together, often with author or other information sited (eg Psa. 74:1 ¶ A maskil of Asaph.) and in both the jolly old c of e common worship or lectionary each refer to psalm, only using psalms when we include two in the service, eg 3rd and 4th sunday of advent.

 

I'm with the minus 's' brigade for psalms!

 

Screenshots below is from the beautifully typeset common worship.

 

 

 

[Ps. havent checked song of songs, acts or john's letters! ;o). ]

Edited June 12, 2017 by ukfraser

[Ken Simpson]

From the SBL Handbook of Style, Section 4.4.5 Designations for the Bible,

©1999

 

"Note further that Psalms is the title of a book, while psalm is usually the name of a genre (as exemplified in the many biblical psalms) but is sometimes part of the name of a particular psalm (such as the Twenty-Third Psalm or Psalm 100)"

 

 

Or Accordance version

 

Below are a few examples; for others, see §4.3.6.

Book of the Wars of the LORD; Book of Jashar (but: book of the law of Moses, the book of the covenant, the book of the prophet Ezra son of Seraiah)
book of Job; book of Jeremiah; Jeremiah’s scroll
Law, Prophets, Writings (as canonical divisions; = Torah, Pentateuch, etc.); Mosaic law, Hebrew prophets, wisdom literature
Twenty-Third Psalm; Psalm 100; psalms of Asaph
the parable of the good Samaritan
four canonical gospels, the Gospel of John, the Fourth Gospel, Paul’s gospel

Billie Jean Collins, ed., The SBL Handbook of Style, 2d ed. (Atlanta: SBL Press, 2009), 33.

Edited June 12, 2017 by Ken Simpson

[Helen Brown]

It's even more complicated in Hebrew where the book of Psalms is called Tehillim, but each individual psalm is referred to as a Mizmor, plural Mizmorim.

 

I think that whenever you extract and cite references, it's up to you to edit them according to the context.