Caps Lock for God

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StPio

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Hello everyone,

I’m fairly new here and was wishing to share and ask something which has been bugging me for a while now regarding the Holy Bible.

Does anyone have, or know of, a Bible which uses capital letters, for Thee and Thou or Thy, He or Him, You etc, when talking to or about God.

I’m looking at Psalm 101 for my example, in my CTS New Catholic Bible which says: “O Lord listen to my prayer and let my cry for help reach you.”

The Douay Rheims version (example taken from the internet as I don’t have this so hopefully I’ve copied this correctly): “Hear, O Lord, my prayer: and let my cry come to thee.”

Basically to those who are wondering what I’m on about! - I was hoping to find a Catholic Bible which uses a capital You or Thee. It seems more appropriate to me when praying to have the references to God distinct from ordinary men in the Bible, or am I on the wrong track here?

What do other people think?

Thank you and God Bless.
 
Capitalization is just a convention. It is a far more common editorial guideline to not capitalize pronouns in reference to God than to capitalize them.

That’s how it is with Church documents. If you go on the Vatican website, you will not find them capitalizing “he” in reference to God. If the Vatican isn’t doing it, I would say it definitely is not something that is obligatory for Catholics to do.

I wouldn’t make this my sole criteria for choosing an edition of the Bible. I’d pay much closer attention to the translation (and perhaps secondarily to the footnotes and/or explanatory notes). It’s not an issue of major concern.
 
If the church does not choose to do it that does not mean that it is forbidden, or that it is not the most reverential . Much has been lost over time.
 
StPio said:
Hello everyone,

I’m fairly new here and was wishing to share and ask something which has been bugging me for a while now regarding the Holy Bible.

Does anyone have, or know of, a Bible which uses capital letters, for Thee and Thou or Thy, He or Him, You etc, when talking to or about God.

I’m looking at Psalm 101 for my example, in my CTS New Catholic Bible which says: “O Lord listen to my prayer and let my cry for help reach you.”

The Douay Rheims version (example taken from the internet as I don’t have this so hopefully I’ve copied this correctly): “Hear, O Lord, my prayer: and let my cry come to thee.”

Basically to those who are wondering what I’m on about! - I was hoping to find a Catholic Bible which uses a capital You or Thee. It seems more appropriate to me when praying to have the references to God distinct from ordinary men in the Bible, or am I on the wrong track here?

What do other people think?

Thank you and God Bless.
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Being older than dirt, I remember the time when the status of God was respected. When I write, I deliberately capitalize the pronouns of God, Whom I deeply love and respect.
 
I wonder if this came from the traditional German capitalization of nouns. They still capitalize the pronoun you in its formal usage (Sie, related to Thee) but not the familiar form (du, related to thou and more recently you).
 
grannymh said:
Being older than dirt, I remember the time when the status of God was respected. When I write, I deliberately capitalize the pronouns of God, Whom I deeply love and respect.
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👍👍

I’m with you and also with the OP…

It may not be required…and that’s fine…but when I write…I will capitalize any reference to God. That’s just my way…

Peace
James
 
While it is okay to type either god or God, can someone explain why you see a red underline when you type satan and you get no such underline when you type Satan?

The above is true not only of MS-Word but also the editor software installed in this CAF site.
 
Pitcharan said:
While it is okay to type either god or God, can someone explain why you see a red underline when you type satan and you get no such underline when you type Satan?

The above is true not only of MS-Word but also the editor software installed in this CAF site.
Click to expand...
I’m guessing that they consider “Satan” to be a proper name whereas “God” is not necessarily so. If you were writing a report on Greco-Roman mythology and referred to “the god Zeus”, it would be incorrect to capitalize it.
 
grannymh said:
Being older than dirt, I remember the time when the status of God was respected. When I write, I deliberately capitalize the pronouns of God, Whom I deeply love and respect.
Click to expand...
Indeed; I always capitalize the Name of God, as well as His pronouns.

As for the topic of the OP, I do understand your issue (at times I capitalize the pronouns referring to God when I quote Scripture), but I would imagine finding such a Bible translation particularly difficult. I agree with Joe 5859:
Joe_5859 said:
Capitalization is just a convention. It is a far more common editorial guideline to not capitalize pronouns in reference to God than to capitalize them.

That’s how it is with Church documents. If you go on the Vatican website, you will not find them capitalizing “he” in reference to God. If the Vatican isn’t doing it, I would say it definitely is not something that is obligatory for Catholics to do.

I wouldn’t make this my sole criteria for choosing an edition of the Bible. I’d pay much closer attention to the translation (and perhaps secondarily to the footnotes and/or explanatory notes). It’s not an issue of major concern.
Click to expand...
 
Joe_5859 said:
I’m guessing that they consider “Satan” to be a proper name whereas “God” is not necessarily so. If you were writing a report on Greco-Roman mythology and referred to “the god Zeus”, it would be incorrect to capitalize it.
Click to expand...
Thanks Joe; that makes sense.
I used to imagine things like ‘deliberate work of a satanic software guy who did it’. Now I’ve shed such thoughts fully.
 
I agree! Capitalization for whenever God (Lord, You, Thee, Thou, etc) is mentioned is a huge sign of reverence and a huge sign of respect! Afterall, He’s the Creator of the universe! 😃
 
Beryllos said:
I wonder if this came from the traditional German capitalization of nouns. They still capitalize the pronoun you in its formal usage (Sie, related to Thee) but not the familiar form (du, related to thou and more recently you).
Click to expand...
Language-geek nit-pick: “Thee” is not a grammatical equivalent of Sie; it is the objective-case form of “thou” (“Thou art” . . . “I tell thee”). The German equivalent of “thou” is “du”, while the equivalent of “thee” is “dich”. The German Sie has no English equivalent; our “you” is their “ihr/euch”, which has pretty much fallen out of use.
 
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