Books. Use the brief citation form of the Authorized Version.

Bible. O.T. Ezra …
Bible. N.T. Revelation …

If the book is one of a numbered sequence of the same name, give its number after the name as an ordinal numeral in its English form (see C.8A).

Bible. N.T. Corinthians, 1st …

If the item is part of a book (other than a single selection known by its title, see 25.18A7), give chapter (in roman numerals) and verse (in arabic numerals). Use inclusive numbering if appropriate.

Bible. O.T. Ecclesiastes III, 1-8 …
Bible. O.T. Genesis XII, 1-XXV, 11 …

25.18A2. Groups of books. Enter an item consisting of one of the following groups of books under the name given here as a subheading of the appropriate testament. For other groups of books, follow the instructions in 25.18A8-25.18A9.

[Examples: remove O.T. and N.T. from all current examples; add new examples in alphabetical order:]

Bible. New Testament
(All books of the Christian New Testament)
Bible. Old Testament
(All books of the Christian Old Testament or Hebrew Bible). See alternative practice under 25.17.A

25.18A3. Apocrypha. Enter the collection known as the Apocrypha (1-2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, Rest of Esther, Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, History of Susanna, Song of the Three Children, Bel and the Dragon, Prayer of Manasses, 1-2 Maccabees) under Bible. Apocrypha.⁵ Enter an individual book as a further subheading directly under Bible. For apocryphal books, see 25.18A14.

Bible. O.T. Apocrypha …
Bible. O.T. Apocrypha. Song of the Three Children …
Bible. O.T. Apocrypha. Esdras, 1st …

Text of rule unchanged; alter first two examples:

Old Testament
see Bible. O.T. Old Testament

Genesis (Book of the Bible)
see Bible. O.T. Genesis

Text of rule unchanged; alter first example:

Pentateuch
For the Pentateuch as a whole, see Bible. O.T. Pentateuch. For an individual book of the Pentateuch, see the name of the book as a subheading of Bible. O.T. (e.g., Bible. O.T. Genesis).

New footnote:
1. For sacred works that are identified as works of personal authorship in reference sources dealing with the religious group to which the sacred work belongs (e.g., works of the Baha’i Faith), enter under the personal author chiefly responsible for the creation of the work.

Text entered as general comment into Confluence:

Members of the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) deeply appreciate efforts by LC, CCDA, JSC, and other groups, to remove Christian bias from RDA. We believe the current proposal is well reasoned and contains excellent suggestions, but question whether we have a sufficiently clear understanding of emerging authority record models to foresee how it will be implemented.

There was uncertainty within the AJL community about whether the proposal envisions (1) multiple established headings for the biblical book within the same authority file, or rather (2) individual libraries having the option to (2a.) assign variant forms to bibliographic records or alternatively (2b.) invoke established headings from non-U.S. authority files. The latter possibility suggests use of the VIAF.

In fact, several of us felt that the VIAF might offer a better solution to the problem of bias, without disrupting collocation and navigation. Perhaps variant Bible headings and even entire hierarchies could be managed through MARC authority “context markers” and the VIAF, i.e., similar to what has been recommended in Model C of MARBI discussion paper 2001-05 (2001-DP05).

While the focus of 2001-DP05 is on non-Roman script parallel headings, the idea behind Model C is generalizable to include multiple cultural aspects. The authors of the DP suggest three such aspects (though leave open the possibility of more), namely: (1) the body of rules under which heading was formulated, (2) the language of catalog in which heading will be used; and (3) the audience for whom the heading is intended.

A research-level cataloging agency in the U.S. could formulate a 1XX heading in the context of RDA cataloging rules, and specify an English-language, academic audience. Cross-references could be provided from variant forms, irrespective of script, that were established according the same rules (in which case they would be tagged 4XX) or within other contexts (in which case, 7XX, and linked to parallel authority records through the VIAF).

Here's an example of how the technique might be applied to sacred scriptures:

008/10 (Cataloging rules code): a (AACR2)
008/11 (Subject system/thesaurus): a (LCSH)
040 $b (Language of cataloging): eng (English)
130 0 $a Bible. Old Testament
430 0 $a Bible. O.T.
430 0 $a Hebrew Bible
730 4 $a Tanakh $7 local/judaic/eng $0 abc1234
730 4 $a $7 JNUL/academic/heb $0 xyx789

where the 130 field is the preferred form, the 430s are non-preferred references, and the 730s are alternate preferred forms, linked to another authority file through a control number in subfield $0. A 730 could then be flipped to a 130 if the context indicated in subfield $7 were deemed culturally appropriate to the host catalog.

In conclusion, while 5JSC/LC/8 would indeed help avoid the appearance of Christian bias in RDA, we believe the negative effect on collocation and resource-discovery would outweigh the benefit of greater inclusiveness. We therefore recommend to CCDA that the proposal not be adopted.