At Truman Elementary School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, I was taught that divine pronouns should always be capitalized. That was at a public school.
Now today, even modern Bible translations do not capitalize the divine pronouns.
Am I just a relic of the ancient past because I feel like God’s name should be honored, even by capitalizing pronouns referring to Him.
On the other hand, I know that if any publisher ever accepts a book I write, he or she will go through my manuscript and turn He and Him into he and him.
I’m interested in hearing other people’s perspectives on this.
Calvinism/Arminianism? Kevin Ezell? The Ground-Zero Mosque? NO! This is the crucial theological issue of our times, right?!
TRIPLE A-MEN
I capitalize it, but it’s not a big issue for me.
I always capitalize anything to do with God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, whether it’s pronouns or nouns. There’s a bunch of stuff I can’t do, but that much I CAN. So I will.
Don’t care what others do. What Mike said.
A-MEN AGAIN
I always capitalize them.
FOUR TIMES A-MEN
If we are blogging, and quote the Holy Name, if the quote doesn’t use a capital, we can go and change it to a capital letter.
Ethical? Legal? Good Form?
I don’t know.
It just somehow seems right to do it, is all.
A-MEN
I capitalize them and it gets on my nerves when people don’t However, I have absolutely no reason for that so I don’t correct folks about it or even mention it.
A REVIVAL MAY BREAK OUT WITH A-MEN AGAIN
🙂 Go for it ! ‘Bout time there was some joy around here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1FQqSGxBso
L’s,
My wife grew up near the banks of a river in Alabama. She said she often went down to the bank of the river to pray as a young child and later as a young woman. That song is one of her favorites.
At this time, I do not know if she will ever be able to go down to the banks of the river to pray again, but I thank you for the YouTube link tonight nonetheless. It helps me to remember that God’s grace is sufficient. And I need to remember that tonight. Thank you.
OMG, C.B.
I’m so very sorry to hear about this.
Dave, count me amongst those who refer to Him as He so rightly deserves. selahV
A HEARTY A-MEN AGAIN
It’s improper grammar to capitalize he/she when referring to a deity.
Somehow, I blame the CR for propagating such bad grammar throughout the SBC.
There, I figured out a way to blame the CR people for even this.
Give it a rest, Bill. Any more comments in the hate-vein will be deleted.
I blame the cr, everyone from enid, all muslims ,mormons and moderationists (sorry, if God doesn’t get a capital, neither do they)(oh wait, I did capitalize it.)
Same thing, Bill Mac. At least you used humor – this is a funny comment.
But we are not going to continue the nonsense on this comment stream.
I ALSO BLAME yankees FANS!
Seriously, I’m seeing lower case mostly in bibles.
Now, that was uncalled for. It is true that newer versions of the Bible almost uniformly use the lower case for pronouns.
I’m guessing this is probably one of those generational things, right? Old Codgers like me…
I was taught to capitalize the pronouns back in 1981 in a Christian school and have done so ever since. It is a small way to show honour and respect for our great God when we write about Him.
The capitalization of pronouns referring to Deity is a relatively young practice. They were not capitalized in the original languages, nor were the names (because there were no caps) although the definite article “the” always preceded the proper name, as was the case in all names. But hey, if the KJV was good enough for Paul, it is good enough for me.
Yes, it is “He” not “he” when referring to a member of the Trinity.
& Mom was an English teacher, so… 🙂
Squirrel
It is the accepted use of the capitalization of the pronoun “he” when referring to Jesus Christ or God.
It is not, however, proper usage. The two aren’t always one in the same.
Just like the word “ain’t” is now accepted and even in the dictionary despite still being considering improper in grammatical usage.
My wife trumps your mom. 🙂
Oh wait, I’m about to get censored again.
If I understand you, Bill, you are saying that it is a commonly accepted usage, but not proper grammar at this point. Is that correct?
I think you might be right.
However, when I was a kid, I think capitalization was both accepted and proper grammar.
Don’t mess with my Mom, bill…
Oh, no. We are going to have a throw down between Bill’s wife and Squirrel’s mom!
Oy
You should know that I mess with everyone.
I’ve been causing the Ban Hammer to fall all over the place tonight.
Does anyone know when the standard began to change? In the 60’s, I can tell you that even public schools instructed us to capitalize divine pronouns. When did the change come?
David, they were still instructing us to capitalize divine pronouns in the 70’s and early 80’s, so I can’t help you. I do know that my word processor always flags it when I do capitalize a pronoun…
Squirrel
We need to hear from some people who were educated in late 80’s and 90’s.
I had teachers that went either way with it.
It wasn’t until college that I (my wife, rather) learned that though it’s accepted usage, it’s not proper usage.
She has no clue as to when it all changed or even if it ever changed but that her professors armed with Ph.D’s stated this is how it is.
Somehow, I get the idea that CB agrees with everyone.
I personally capitalize the personal pronouns of the Trinity.
BUT!!
We must remember that in Hebrew and in NT era Greek, there is no “capitalization”. So really, I dont think this is an “important” issue.
Yeah, I know its not important, but its something I think about a lot while I’m writing.
Can someone who knows Greek better than I (which would be 99% of everyone on the planet) answer this–did Greek owriting have a special way of writing the name of God?
Nope.
The earliest manuscripts were written in all CAPS with no spaces between words and almost no punctuation.
Yeah, Greek did not differentiate the name of God or proper names or anything. Manuscripts were either “uncial” (written in all-caps) or “minuscule” (lower-case), but not mixed.
College English Profs in the 80’s were grading my papers downward for using caps in reference to He, Him being diety. Got a C for it. I still brag about it. Most college English Profs are anti Christian anyway at public universities. I switched to Liberty Univ and all was well after that!
I just cannot get past the fact that if I am going to capitalize Joe, Stephen, Paula or C.B. (What does that stand for…come on, fess up!) then I am most certainly going to cap “He” when referring to God. Perhaps that is not logical, in and of itself, but it just seems proper.
The only problem is that I am teaching my daughter this, too, but in her “Christian” school, her teacher marked it wrong when she capped “He” when referring to God in the middle of a sentence!
We found they had no policy but then they thought it might be best to get the teachers on the same page with it.
I’m one who generally doesn’t capitalize pronouns. Here’s a good reason explaining why some Bible translations choose not to. http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2010/06/25/puzzling-pronouns-in-the-prophets/
Good article Trevin, thanks.
I think an English translation should follow English convention, and that means capitalizing proper nouns but not pronouns. However, in conversations with other believers, I try to capitalize divine pronouns just out of consideration, per the Biblical teaching of not putting unnecessary stumbling blocks in front of fellow believers.
In other languages such as German practically all nouns can be capitalized, which English readers would find annoying or distracting. And in any modern Greek Bible texts I’ve seen, they seem to follow the same capitalization scheme as English, i.e. only capitalizing proper nouns and the beginning of sentences.
Yes, Trevin, thank you for this link. I guess I’m hopelessly stuck in my old-fashioned ways, but at least this article gives a rationale for it.
Here’s the problem. We were taught that capitalizing the divine pronouns was an act of respect. Because of that, it is hard for us to see NOT capitalizing as anything but disrespect.
Its good to see a rationale for the modern practice.
http://www.agsconsulting.com/htdbv5/r3978.htm
Of the three Baptist seminaries I have attended, it is commonly permitted to capitalize pronouns in reference to Persons of the Trinity. There is also the same permission not to do so.
The general rule is that consistency is necessary in following one or the other practice in any paper presented to a faculty member.
When I taught as an adjunct, I considered any student who did not capitalize any and all references to the Persons of the Trinity as either an infidel or a Methodist. 🙂
Are they different?
(I refuse to use emoticons, but one would work here!)
Capitalize all of the time. In fact I was just writing a paper for class and got a little peeved that the prof. did not capitalize the pronouns that referred to the Triune Godhead. That being said, I’m sure he was taught the “proper” way to write in English. (H)e also probably stacks books on top of his Bible and that would get you a talking to in the house I grew up in. btw I graduated in ’96 but my thinking is probably greatly amiss because I went to a small Christian school and was home-schooled.
I like capitalizing. I know that some Bible translations don’t capitalize the pronouns simply because in some places it might not be clear whether the antecedent is God or a human (or even a double intention), so they want to leave that for the reader to wrestle with
I do know that some people refuse to capitalize the word Satan. Or Voldemort.
“I do know that some people refuse to capitalize the word Satan. Or Voldemort.”
Smart people also refuse to capitalize: acc, big twelve, big east, big ten, conference usa, ia independents, mid-american, big sky, big south, caa, iaa, ivy league, meac, mountain west, pacific ten, missouri valley, northeast, ohio valley, sun belt, patriot league, wac, pioneer, southern conference, southland, and swac.
But smart people always and I mean always capitalize: SEC.
And really, really smart people always and I mean really, really always capitalize SABANATION and are faithful fans of no other.
I capitalize pronouns refering the God, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit. Frankly, I do not recall where I picked up that habbit. Although when I went to public schools in the 60s we had daily devotionals (and I took my turn like everyone else, even though unchurched and not a Christian), I am quite sure there was nothing said about it there. But it is not worth going to war over, especially, as others have already pointed out, the Greek text does not mix upper case letters with lower case ones, or use little if any punctuation (which is why some translations have Jesus as the speaker in John 3:16, and others, John as its writer).
John
Actually, John, there were two reasons for this post.
1) I really do find myself in a quandary about what to do. I think its a generational thing. Anyone over 40 tends to capitalize. The young bucks and whippersnappers don’t.
2) I wanted to introduce a topic to divert attention from a couple of comment streams that had gone horribly awry.
What the old codgers do in capitalizing is fine and accepted.
What the young leaders of the convention do is fine as well.
It’s accepted usage and won’t be counted wrong by any academic body.
Your love for the Lord isn’t measured by whether or not you remember to press the shift key while typing. If that’s the case, then there is no need for my commentary because that line of thinking speaks volumes for itself.
Good comments, all. I just wonder … if anyone ever approached anyone else and said, “I noticed you capitalized God in your sentence. That makes me want to give my heart to Jesus. Would you pray with me?”
I do the caps, out of respect. Honestly, I have considered using the G-d convention of my Messianic Jewish brothers because I dig their awesome reverence for Father.
Anyway … not sure we are diminishing His divinity by not doing it, but I will continue. Should I now, in scribal fashion, break my pen … or, uhmm, keyboard, for typing God? Just a joke.
Good chatting with you guys and gals.
BTW, I graduated in 1993. Rural East Texas where I now pastor and teach … same school. We capped it then, but then again, our Super leads prayer at inservice.
Morning thoughts: On ‘adverting’ to the Holy Name, by capitalizing its pronoun.
I wonder if people realize that even the simplest gesture of reverence for the Holy Name is a gentle witness that the Holy Spirit can use to reach another soul? For example: ‘Jesus’ means ‘He Who saves His people’, and in capitalizing ‘He’ in reference to the Saving Lord, we acknowledge our deep reverence for Him. Grammar be hanged, in competition with that. Does it ‘jar’ someone who sees it. Perhaps, perhaps not. But there will be a time, and a place, an a person for whom that simple witness is a gift of grace that flows through the gesture to their hearts, and they pause and notice. And maybe something is ‘begun’ in them that the Holy Spirit can use to lead them towards Our Lord.
When I was a child, we ‘adverted’ without even a second thought ever time we said the Name ‘Jesus’ out loud: our head bowed forward slightly on the first syllable of the Holy Name, and raised up on the second syllable. I still do it, that physical acknowledgement is a part of who I am. Will I always capitalize . . . ???? I’m sure I overlook it at times . . . but I think it is part of who I am to do it. And I am glad for that.
Luke 2:21 “…Et vocatum est Nomen eius IESUS”
(“And His Name was called JESUS”)
Psalm 90:14 “Because he hoped in me I will deliver him:
I will protect him because he hath known My Name.”
Zacharias 10:12 “I will strengthen them in the Lord,
and they shall walk in His Name, saith the Lord.”
Apocalypse 3:8 “I know thy works. Behold, I have given before thee a door opened, which no man can shut: because thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied My Name.”
Apocalypse 15:4 “Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and magnify Thy Name?…”
Apocalypse 15:4 “Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and magnify Thy Name?…”
‘magnify’ is a word that makes sense, within the context of this post
🙂
The old King James Version also did not capitalize divine pronouns.
The New King James Version does capitalize them. So, for those of you who do not have a NJKV, go buy one this week! Be sure to get it in the Scofield Reference Bible.
David R. Brumbelow
That surprises me.
I’ve noticed trend in formal editorial usage by respectable Christian publishers and have made the decision to follow suit. I can’t say what the reasoning behind it is but it’s hardly consequential. I figure if it changes and someone sees the things I’ve written year down the road (as though they were actually of great import), then they will be able to date what I’ve written more accurately based on such rules of common usage.
I always capitalize He, Him, etc. but it seems that in the scholarly world there is a universal want for grammatical correctness. I think the lowercase “h” makes it an easier read, but I prefer the reverent capitalization. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter that much.