Nonfiction Citations: Abbreviate or Spell out?

In the world of academic biblical studies, if I want to refer to a signed article (the author’s name is given), the preferred stye of the Society of Biblical Literature (the largest association for biblical scholars) is to give an abbreviation for a reference work. However, since I am writing for a general Christian audience, I am unsure what to do. InterVarsity Press told me that readers are afraid of footnotes, but I can’t imagine writing a nonfiction book related to the Bible without a few endnotes. I’m torn over what to do, but I hate it when author makes a categorical statement like, “The population of Galilee in the first century was 150-400 thousand” and does not tell us where that data came from, and I absolutely don’t trust Google for that sort of thing. So, in my discipline, I would write

John Smith, “Galilee,” NIDB 2:516

and give info for NIDB in an abbreviatiion list at the start of the book. I like footnotes, but I am worried that an abbreviation list will scare potential readers.

Or, I can write

John Smith, “Galilee,” New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2007), 2:516.

Either of these would be endnotes. I haven’t decided if they should be endnotes at the end of a chapter or endnotes at the back of the book.

Should I abbreviate this book title, which I may use multiple times and have an abbreviations list, or just spell out the name, which will be easier for a general reader? Since I read academic biblical studies books regularly, the first method is my default, but I want to write for my potential Timotny. What do you recommend? Thanks.

Ken