INTRODUCTION

This article has been written to address a frequent question about ways of addressing God. Must or should God be addressed by "thou," or with "you"?

Surrounding this matter is a lack of understanding. Consequently, confusion and strife exist over subordinate words. It is my prayer that this material helps many come to "terms' with the issue.

NO TRIVIAL GOD

God must not be trivialized, for "God is not a man..." (Numbers 23:19). Yet, our time has reflected serious deficiencies and distortions in understanding and portraying the nature and being of God. Such silly songs as, "Me and Jesus Got a Good Thing Going" illustrate how God has been brought down in man's mind. God is often promoted as little more than one's sentimental side kick or "good buddy." There is, however, too much evidence in natural and special revelation for that kind of attitude to be excusable.

God through his world and through his word has demonstrated that nothing less than absolute admiration and allegiance is due him. The creator and sustainer of the universe has revealed his greatness in the world (Psalm 19:1-6); in an internal witness of the law on the heart (Romans 2:14,15); and ultimately through his written word or revelation (Psalm 19:7-9) which includes the testimony of his revelation of his son, Jesus Christ the Lord (Heb.1:1,2).

All this demonstrates that God must not be trivialized in any way or shown disrespect. The question is,"How should this great and good God be addressed?" Must "thou-thee- thy" be employed when doing so? The answer must be and can be discovered from the Bible.

BIBLICAL PRECEDENTS

God revealed himself, his name, to his people. Moses and others were allowed to record that information. God revealed himself by many names: Elohim, El-Shaddai, Adonai, Jehovah and its many derivatives, such as, Jehovah-Jireh, Jehovah-Nissi, and Jehovah-Shalom. These proper names communicated something of God's greatness and goodness to his creatures, particularly to his people.

Jews in later Rabbinic practice and tradition gave one of God's names special treatment. We know the name in English as "Jehovah." The consonants of this name in Hebrew are YHVH. With various vowel pointings it comes out to be Yahweh or Jehovah in English. Rabbinic tradition considered the name YHVH sacred to such an extent that when reading the Hebrew scriptures and seeing Jehovah (LORD) they would say, Adonai (Lord) instead.

This practice appears very "spiritual" and "pious," yet there are serious problems with it. Chiefly, God never stated that his name could not be pronounced. On the contrary, he required that his name be proclaimed to the nations!

What does this illustration teach us? There are real dangers when making sacred that which God has never required. Certainly, there are parallels between the treatment of the name "Jehovah" by Rabbinic Judaism and the treatment of "thou-thee-thy" today. Let's take a closer look.

BIBLICAL LANGUAGE USAGE

In languages there developed a way of speaking and writing to communicate fluently without repeating nouns or names in sentence structures. The pronoun would serve this purpose; it would stand in the place of the noun. When referring to, or in the place of a proper name, the word would be called a personal pronoun.

The Old Testament was written in Hebrew. The New Testament was written in Greek. Both languages have pronouns that function in the place of nouns and names in sentence structure. How did pronouns function in the biblical languages? Biblical Hebrew and Greek pronouns functioned only to carry or receive the noun or name's presence through the sentence.

Emphasis in biblical languages was on the noun, subject, or name, whether referring to God, man, a spiritual being, or an inanimate object. There were not two or three sets of pronouns used: for example, one to convey the significance of God's name and another when referring to Abraham. Hebrew and Greek do have pronouns that distinguish between singular and plural and between subject pronouns (referring to the one performing the action of the verb); and object pronouns (the one receiving the action of the verb or joined with a preposition); but they are used without any reference to rank. In Biblical Hebrew and Greek pronouns were a matter of precision not piety.

The Hebrew pronoun for "you" is "atah" and the Greek pronoun for "you" is "su." They receive their significance from the word which they modify and hold no qualities of respectful reference apart from them.

This means that the writers of revealed scripture did not draw any distinctions between God and others by the pronouns employed whether by retaining older forms, different size letters of the alphabet, or different pronouns entirely. The pronouns used for God were not divine.

ENGLISH USAGE

The difficulty arises for many, however, with bringing the above precedent and principles to focus on modern day use for the church. How should one address God whether in casual conversation, prayer, singing, teaching, or preaching among English speaking people?

Some hold that the way to properly promote the name of God, when a pronoun is necessary, is to refer to him by a different pronoun than that which is used for other persons and things. Yet, since English, like Hebrew and Greek, does not use different pronouns for reverence, the result is that old English pronouns "thou-thee-thy" have to be retained to create this distinction of reverence. Consequently, the biblical pattern is ignored and the modern English language confused.

The English Language Has Changed

This article as you have observed is entitled "God, Thou Art You." If an educated person from the time of the writing of the King James Bible were to have read the title, he would have said, "That title is grammatically impossible."  But, he would not have said, "That is irreverent!" as some shout today.

It is true - the title of this article would have been considered grammatically incorrect. Why so? Basically, two historic English grammatical rules apply.  First, "thou" was a singular pronoun and "you" was a plural pronoun. Second, "thou" could only receive its complement with another subject pronoun. For example, "God, Thou Art He" would have been correct during those older times.  Yet, "you" was a plural objective pronoun. So, during that time, "God, You Art He" would not have been correct.

Today, the title of this article is no longer incorrect - just redundant. The pronouns "thou-thee-thy (thine)" were dropped slowly in the English language, as "you and your" came to replace them. This means that the once plural objective pronoun "you" and the plural objective possessive pronoun "your" began pulling double duty. Therefore, today, the article could read, "God, You Are He" and be grammatically correct and acceptable.

The Case of the Lost Dual

It is regrettable that the English language no longer has the precision of former times. At one time in English there were pronouns to denote even dual items. The dual pronoun was "git" or "yit" meaning "ye two." "Yit" appeared in use along with its other dual forms "inc - inker."

These pronouns, however, do not appear in the King James Version of the Bible. Here is one example, among hundreds of places in the King James Version, where the dual "yit" would have been helpful.

Now therefore, my son, obey my voice; and arise, flee thou to Laban my brother to Haran; and tarry with him a few days, until thy brother's fury turn away; until thy brother's fury turn away from thee, and he forget that which thou hast done to him: then I will send, and fetch thee from thence: why should I be deprived also of you both in one day? (Genesis 27:43-45 [bold mine])

In verse forty-five, "you both" is a rendering of one Hebrew word. That one word is a combination of the Hebrew word for two and a plural objective pronoun for you. The combination in Hebrew is "you two." It would have been more precise for the English translators to have used "yit" instead of "you both." First, the English "yit" is an exact parallel to the Hebrew word. Second, "yit" is only one word instead of two words.

Then, why didn't the translators use "yit"? It could have given more precision to the language, especially since Hebrew also had dual forms? The reason is that the English dual forms "yit-inc-inker" had dropped from use and were replaced by other pronouns pulling double duty. They had passed away from use before the King James Version was made.

Similarly, "thou-thee-thy" passed from use in English, and were replaced by "you-your" which were pulling double duty.

Surprising Irony

The passing of "thou-thee-thy" from common use, as they were replaced by "you-your," presents a surprising irony. "Thou" before passing away had become, for a short period of time, a term for inferiority! As "you" became acceptable among the higher classes of people, "thou" was still being retained for addressing the lower classes.

Those who were called Quakers understood this change. In their conversations, they would not call a man "you" but only "thou."

BIBLICAL EXAMPLES

Old Testament

Now, it is time for a short English Bible lesson. We do not have to go far into the King James Bible to observe precision without indicating reverence or irreverence in its use of "thou-thee-thy."

In Genesis 2:16, "thou" first appears rendering a Hebrew verbal form, "And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat..." [underline mine].

The first time that "thou" is used as a pronoun in the King James Version rendering the Hebrew "atah" is in Genesis 3:14,15. "And the LORD God said unto the serpent, because thou hast done (verbal form) this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly (suffix form) shalt thou go (verbal form), and dust shalt thou eat (verbal form) all the days of thy life (suffix form): and I will put enmity between thee (preposition suffix) and the woman, and between thy seed (suffix form) and her seed; it shall bruise thy head (suffix form), and thou shalt bruise his heel." [bold & underline mine; bold indicates the pronouns, while the underlines are explained in the parenthesis]  Did you notice that "thou-thee-thy" were used for the serpent which is the Devil!

A few verses later, in Genesis 3:19, "thou," rendering the Hebrew "atah," occurs again. This time referring to man, "...for dust thou art...."

New Testament

The New Testament presents the same patterns when using "thou-thee-thy."  As in the Old Testament, we do not have to go far to show that "thou" is used without any reverential reference. "Thou- thee-thy" appear first in the New Testament at Matthew 1:20. "...Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife...." [underline & bold mine]

Here, however, "thou and thee" are simply understood to exist in the sentence. There are no pronouns or other forms for them in the Greek text.  The Greek possessive pronoun of "su" does appear, however, and is rendered by "thy."

Later, in Matthew 2:6, "thou & thee" are actually appearing for personal pronouns. "And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel. [bold mine]

Furthermore, have you ever observed in Luke 2:8 that Jesus said, "...Get thee behind me Satan..."? [bold mine] So, we have seen in the New Testament as well as the Old Testament that "thou- thee-thy" occur for man, for spiritual beings, and for inanimate objects. This practice is consistent throughout the Bible.

Then, to give reverential treatment for "thou-thee- thy" is misguided. To say "thou-thee-thy" should be preferred in Christian worship is not facing the truth of scripture. Such reverence for pronouns was not promoted or practised in Hebrew, Greek, or in the King James Version of the Bible.

Additionally, there was no special treatment of other pronouns, such as, "I-he-his-him." Notice John 6:2, "And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased." [bold mine]  There were no distinctions drawn by the use of pronouns in the New Testament.

THE DUTCH LINGUISTIC STRUGGLE

One of the reasons why "thou-thee-thy" are promoted in some congregations is because of influence from a Dutch linguistic peculiarity. The Dutch language has sets of pronouns that convey distinctions between persons. There is a different pronoun used for Grandparents or for God ("u" sounding like "oo" rhyming with "do" in English) than the one used for a brother or the stranger down the road ("jy" sounding like "yea" in English). Now, if you were speaking Dutch, it would be very improper, of course, to refer to God with the "jy" pronoun, since the Dutch language has a linguistic feature for distinctions of rank.

But, remember, nothing in the Bible's use of pronouns demonstrates such distinctions at all. Truly, the danger is in creating a sacred term for God which he has not revealed as a sacred name for himself.

COMING TO TERMS WITH "THOU" AND "YOU"

We have seen that it was not demeaning to refer to God with common pronouns, whether in the Hebrew Old Testament with "atah," or in the Greek New Testament with "su." In English "thou-thee-thy" along with "ye-you" were used in everyday conversation at the time of the King James Version. As Hebrew and Greek manuscripts were translated into English, the translators used all of the pronouns above as vehicles of communication. We also saw that the King James Version made no distinctions for reverence or rank with "thou-thee-thy," or any other pronouns for that matter.

Therefore, when you use or hear someone addressing God with "you," understand that the use is not an indication of liberalism or a trivial attitude toward God (those can exist where "thou-thee-thy" are standard terminology).  But using "you" for God is in keeping with biblical languages and historic precedents and changes in English usage. It cannot be irreverent addressing God today with "you," since "thou" is "you."

Sheffield Reformed Church
Box 12-4
Sheffield, Ontario L0R 1Z0
November, 1998