Why have the modern versions of the Bible all stopped capitalizing pronouns referring to God, the Son, or the Holy Spirit? As far as I know, only KJV, NKJV, and the NASB still capitalize divine pronouns. I like the new English Standard Version, but the one thing that has prevented me from purchasing it, is simply that it irks me that they don’t capitalize the divine pronouns. Taking away the capitalizations, after having the divine pronouns capitalized for so many centuries, is just one less way that we show respect to God. IMHO. Yes, I have respect issues (here and here, for example); I take issue with the fact that we keep finding more and more ways to show less and less respect.
CHRISTINE’S BOOKS
NOTHING NEW PRESS
HOMESCHOOLING TORAH
My MacArthur Study Bible does use Capitals. 🙂 I do like most of the concordance, but there are a few places I disagree with the comments. I love what it says in Job – basically that the text suggests dinosaurs!
– Sprittibee
Hi Sprittibee — what version is the MacArthur Study Bible? (Is that John MacArthur, btw?)
I'm not sure when the tradition of capitalizing divine pronouns began, but it does not go back as far as you think.
Take a look at the pictures linked below — three pages from the FIRST edition of the Kings James Version, that is from 1611. Start reading through them and you will see that there are a number of mid-sentence pronouns referring to God and Jesus and NONE is capitalized.
http://www.greatsite.com/ancient-rare-bible-leaves/king-james-1611-picture.html
http://www.greatsite.com/ancient-rare-bible-leaves/king-james-1611-picture2.html
http://www.greatsite.com/ancient-rare-bible-leaves/king-james-1611-picture3.html
Of course, when the Scriptures were first written there were no 'lower case' letters, so none of these distinctions COULD be made.
Now I certainly do not object to capitalizing them, but in light of the above I can hardly see rejecting a Bible because it chooses NOT to do so. Moreover, having known several men involved in translating more recent versions (NIV, ESV), I can assure you that this decision is NOT about 'not showing respect'.