Bruce Feiler - Where God Was Born, Abraham, Walking The Bible

Jesus and Moses Are Not Mattis
Friday, February 2, 2007

I got an email this week in which a family member referred to an ideas as Mattis’. The sight of the name Mattis with that apostrophe dangling at the end jolted me, and reminded me that I never really learned the rule on what to do with an apostrophe s if the name ends with s. Boy did I get an eyeful when I started looking around – and a surprising connection with the Bible.

Here’s Wikipedia’s roundup: If the singular possessive is difficult or awkward to pronounced with an added s sound, do not add an extra s. Permitted expressions are Socrates’ suggestion; James’s house; or James’ house. In other words: either is permitted, but be consistent.

But. There are two well-known exceptions: Moses and Jesus, which do not add the extra s. Wikipedia: Classical, biblical, and similar names ending in an s sound, especially if they are polysyllabic, do not take an added s in the possessive, such as Moses and Jesus.
As a particular case, Jesus’ is very commonly written instead of Jesus’s, even by people who would otherwise add ’s in, for example, James’s or Chris’s; Jesus’ is referred to as “an accepted liturgical archaism” in Hart’s Rules.

Labels: The Bible

Posted by B Feiler at 8:37 AM
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