The Light in the Darkness

It was on a website called "Writing Cooperative." The title of the article is "How to Make a Name That Ends With an S Passive: and why that depends on your style guide of choice." Quote: While I prefer to use The AP Stylebook, many writers opt to use The Chicago Manual of Style instead. The trick is to pick a style and stick with it. Then when you’re faced with a common conundrum — such as the question of “How do you make a name that ends with the letter S possessive?” — you can refer to your guide for the answer. The conundrum According to the nifty website Daily Writing Tips, this particular issue has a long history. For years The Chicago Manual of Style stated that “Biblical and classical” proper names such as “Moses,” “Achilles,” and “Jesus” should take an apostrophe only, not an apostrophe with an S, to form the possessive. So for a long time, people were used to seeing references such as “Moses’ wife,” “Achilles’ heel,” and “Jesus’ disciples.” But then, as editors of style guides do, the editors of The Chicago Manual of Style decided to change this rule so all names that end in S would take an apostrophe followed by another S to form the possessive. So now, according to this particular style guide, you would write “Moses’s wife, “Achiles’s heel,” and “Jesus’s disciples” just as you would write “Chris’s birthday” or “Jane Strauss’s house. Turns out, The AP Stylebook has always called for the opposite: only an apostrophe after a proper name that ends in the letter S. So not only would you write “Moses’ wife,” “Achilles’ heel,” and “Jesus’ disciples,” you would also write “Chris’ birthday” and “Jane Strauss’ house.”

Something else I noticed as I was reading your description was this sentence. "The minimalist surroundings of the painting only serve to highlight the striking beauty of Jesus' figure." In school, I was always taught that any name that ends in 's' should not have an apostrophe 's' tagged onto the end of it to show possessive. You were correct here although there appears to be some disagreement about it. I always cringe when I hear someone say, "Jesus's disciples." I found something about the subject.

I love the way Jesus is depicted in this painting. It's a full length portrait and the folds of His garment--the way it softly drapes as he walks--I can't imagine how many steps He must have walked when He was here to fulfill the will of the Father. I enjoyed reading your description. This is how I like to picture Jesus. Personally, I don't like the ones that depict Jesus with a halo.