[Faith-talk] A Historical Bible Question, If I May Post It

[Greg Aikens]

Hi Paul,
This is a great question, and you prompted me to do a little research to back up my own thoughts.  My gut answer was to say that these modern translations do not follow the convention of capitalizing pronouns referring to God for the simple fact that the original texts didn't do so.  Hebrew doesn't make a distinction between upper and lower case, and the greek manuscripts were written in either all capitals or all lower case.  

But so what?  Why shouldn't we show that extra respect and reverence by capitalizing the pronouns?  We certainly can, but in the case of translations of the Bible, this adds another step of interpretation on the part of the translators.  What about passages where the pronoun he could refer to God or Jesus, or even just a human king?  The translators are forced to decide on an interpretation when they decide to capitalize, instead of leaving the text in its original form.  This guy does a far better job explaining than I do:  

http://parablemania.ektopos.com/archives/2004/06/divine_capitali.html

While we could bemoan the influence of liberalism and academia that has taken God's respect away in his own book, I suspect the decision could have also been made out of a deep respect for the biblical texts.  

Interesting question Paul.  What do you think?

-Greg

On May 22, 2012, at 5:30 PM, Paul wrote:

> Hello everyone.  I was told that when I joined this list that a Bible question could be posted.  I've asked several individuals privately this question, but they had no answer.  The question is this: Why do most modern versions of the Bible not capitalize pronouns referring to God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit? Yes, I know that in 1611 when the KJV was first published, they did capitalize such words and still do so today, as does the New King James Version.  Some might say rightly that words from the 17th and even the 18th centuries that were capitalized back then aren't now.  I would agree with that but, when it comes to God, the question still begs an answer: Why do modern versions of the Bible refrain from doing it.  It shows respect to God in doing so, and He demands respect, reverence and honor.  If this is an ignorant question just let it be so.  Any answer would be appreciated.  Thanks in advance for any input.  Paul
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