pronoun for "God"

God transcends gender, but most languages are limited to grammatical gender expressed in pronouns. In the case of English, this is traditionally confined to “he” (or in the forms “his,” “him,” and “himself”), “she” (and “her,” “hers,” and “herself”), and “it” (and “its” and “itself”).

Modern Mandarin Chinese, however, offers another possibility. Here, the third-person singular pronoun is always pronounced the same (tā), but it is written differently according to its gender (他 is “he,” 她 is “she,” and 它/牠 is “it” and their respective derivative forms). In each of these characters, the first (or upper) part defines the gender (man, woman, or thing/animal), while the second element gives the clue to its pronunciation.

In 1930, after a full century with dozens of Chinese translations, Bible translator Wang Yuande (王元德) coined a new “godly” pronoun: 祂. Chinese readers immediately knew how to pronounce it: tā. But they also recognized that the first part of that character, signifying something spiritual, clarified that each person of the Trinity has no gender aside from being God.

While the most important Protestant and Catholic Chinese versions respectively have opted not to use 祂, some Bible translations do and it is widely used in hymnals and other Christian materials. Among the translations that use 祂 to refer to “God” were early versions of Lü Zhenzhong’s (呂振中) version (New Testament: 1946, complete Bible: 1970). R.P. Kramers (in The Bible Translator 1956, p. 152ff. ) explains why later versions of Lü’s translation did not continue with this practice: “This new way of writing ‘He,’ however, has created a minor problem of its own: must this polite form be used whenever Jesus is referred to? Lü follows the rule that, wherever Jesus is referred to as a human being, the normal tā (他) is written; where he is referred to as divine, especially after the ascension, the reverential tā (祂) is used.”

In Kouya, Godié, Northern Grebo, Eastern Krahn, Western Krahn, and Guiberoua Béte, all languages of the Kru family in Western Africa, a different kind of system of pronouns is used (click or tap here to read more):

In that system, one kind of pronoun is used for humans (male and female alike) and others for natural elements, non-liquid masses, and some spiritual entities (one other is used for large animals and another one for miscellaneous items). While in these languages the pronoun for spiritual entities used to be employed when referring to God, this has changed into the use of the human pronoun.

Lynell Zogbo (in The Bible Translator 1989, p. 401ff. ) explains: “From informal discussions with young Christians especially, it would appear that, at least for some people, the experience and/or concepts of Christianity are affecting the choice of pronoun for God. Some people explain that God is no longer ‘far away,’ but is somehow tangible and personal. For these speakers God has shifted over into the human category.”

In Kouya, God (the Father) and Jesus are referred to with the human pronoun ɔ, whereas the Holy Spirit is referred to with a non-human pronoun. (Northern Grebo and Western Krahn make a similar distinction.)

Eddie Arthur, a former Kouya Bible translation consultant, says the following: “We tried to insist that this shouldn’t happen, but the Kouya team members were insistent that the human pronoun for the Spirit would not work.”

In Burmese, the pronoun ko taw (ကိုယ်တော်) is used either as 2nd person (you) or 3rd person (he, him, his) reference. “This term clearly has its root in the religious language in Burmese. No ordinary persons are addressed or known by this pronoun because it is reserved for Buddhist monks, famous religious teachers, and in the case of Christianity, the Trinity.” (Source: Gam Seng Shae in The Bible Translator 2002, p. 202ff. )

In Thai, the pronoun phra`ong (พระองค์) is used, a gender-neutral pronoun which must refer to a previously introduced royal or divine being. Similarly, in Northern Khmer, which is spoken in Thailand, “an honorific divine pronoun” is used for the pronoun referring to the persons of the Trinity (source: David Thomas in The Bible Translator 1993, p. 445 ). In Urak Lawoi’, another language spoken in Thailand, the translation often uses tuhat (ตูฮัด) — “God” — ”as a divine pronoun where Thai has phra’ong even though it’s actually a noun.” (Source for Thai and Urak Lawoi’: Stephen Pattemore)

The English “Contemporary Torah” addresses the question of God and gendered pronouns by mostly avoiding pronouns in the first five books of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (unless God is referred to as “lord,” “father,” “king,” or “warrior”). It does that by either using passive constructs (“He gave us” vs. “we were given”), by using the adjective “divine” or by using “God” rather than a pronoun.

Some Protestant and Orthodox English Bibles use a referential capitalized spelling when referring to the persons of the Trinity with “He,” “His,” “Him,” or “Himself.” This includes for instance the New American Standard Bible or The Orthodox New Testament, but most translations do not. Two other languages where this is also done (in most Bible translations) are Twents as well as the closely related Indonesian and Malay. In the latter two languages this follows the language usage according to the Qur’an, which in turn predicts that usage (see Soesilo in The Bible Translator 1991, p. 442ff. and The Bible Translator 1997, p. 433ff. ).

See also first person pronoun referring to God.

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Gender of God .

Translation: Chinese

在现代汉语中，第三人称单数代词的读音都是一样的（tā），但是写法并不一样，取决于性别以及是否有生命，即男性为“他”，女性为“她”，动物、植物和无生命事物为“它”（在香港和台湾的汉语使用，动物则为“牠”）。这些字的部首偏旁表明了性别（男人、女人、动物、无生命事物），而另一偏旁通常旁提示发音。

到1930年为止，基督教新教《圣经》经过整整一百年的翻译已经拥有了十几个译本，当时的一位圣经翻译者王元德新造了一个“神圣的”代词“祂”，偏旁“礻”表示神明。一般汉语读者会立即知道这字的发音是tā，而这个偏旁表示属灵的事物，因此他们明白这个字指出，三位一体的所有位格都没有性别之分，而单单是上帝。

然而，最重要的新教圣经译本（1919年的《和合本》）和天主教圣经译本（1968年的《思高圣经》）都没有采用“祂”；虽然如此，许多其他的圣经译本采用了这个字，另外还广泛出现在赞美诗和其他基督信仰的书刊中。（资料来源：Zetzsche）

《吕振中译本》的几个早期版本也使用“祂”来指称“上帝”；这个译本的《新约》于1946年译成，整部《圣经》于1970年完成。克拉默斯（Kramers）指出：“‘他’的这种新写法（即‘祂’）产生了一个小问题，就是在指称耶稣的时候，是否一律使用这个敬语代词？《吕振中译本》遵循的原则是，在称呼耶稣这个人的时候，用一般的‘他’，而在称呼耶稣神性的时候，特别是升天之后的耶稣，则用尊称‘祂’。”

Translator: Simon Wong

3rd person pronoun with high register (Japanese)

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.

Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.

One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a third person singular and plural pronoun (“he,” “she,” “it” and their various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. While it’s not uncommon to avoid pronouns altogether in Japanese, there are is a range of third person pronouns that can be used. In these verses a number of them are used that pay particularly much respect to the referred person (or, in fact, God, as in Exodus 15:2), including kono kata (この方), sono kata (その方), and ano kata (あの方), meaning “this person,” “that person,” and “that person over there.”

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also third person pronoun with exalted register.

Translation commentary on John 3:26

In Greek the subject of the verbs went and told is not clear. It could be taken in an impersonal sense, “people went to John and told him.” However, it seems better to take it as referring back to some of John’s disciples.

Teacher (literally “Rabbi”) is the same word of address used of Jesus in 1.38.

You remember the man who was with you on the east side of the Jordan is literally “he who was with you on the other side of the Jordan.” In Greek this expression represents a stylistic way of calling attention to a person already known by both the speaker and the person addressed. Good News Translation tries to reflect the conversational style of this verse. In English one way of accomplishing it is to introduce the statement by “You remember…” New English Bible handles this matter on a more formal basis by rendering “Rabbi, there was a man with you on the other side of the Jordan….”

The one you spoke about is literally “to whom you have given witness.” As indicated earlier (1.7), the theme of “witness” is basic to John’s Gospel. It should be noted that the verb spoke about is in the perfect tense, indicating the continuing effect of John’s witness to Jesus. New American Bible attempts to capture this aspect of the Greek tense by rendering “the one about whom you have been testifying.” New English Bible and several other translations reproduce a pure biblicism, “to whom you bore your witness.” This expression may be rendered idiomatically in some languages as “That man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan, that one you spoke about, well, he is baptizing people now….”

Well, he (New English Bible “here he is”) is an attempt to bring out the force of the emphatic Semitic expression “behold this one.” The adverb now is introduced by Good News Translation to bring out the emphatic nature of the present tense in this verse. The force of what these people are saying to John the Baptist is that the one about whom John spoke so highly is now baptizing, and so he is in competition with John. Not that Jesus was really working in competition with John the Baptist or that John was competing with Jesus, but evidently John’s disciples felt this way about it. Jerusalem Bible translates in a similar way, “the man … is baptizing now.”

If the receptor language has a tendency to understand “everyone” in an absolute sense, it would be wrong to say “everyone is going to him.” Obviously, there were still people who were going to John and whom he was baptizing. An equivalent expression for the last clause in verse 26 would be “people are now flocking to him” or “many people are now going to him.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

SIL Translator’s Notes on John 3:26

3:26a

Apparently the disciples came to John to ask a question related to what they discussed about purification. Perhaps baptism was part of their discussion or the word “purification” referred to baptism.

3:26b

Look, Rabbi, the One who was with you beyond the Jordan: These men referred back to the events recorded in John 1:19–34. It appears that they wanted John to be jealous of Jesus. They were not happy that Jesus was getting more disciples than John. Consider how it is natural to refer to someone in a situation like that. For example:

Teacher, remember the man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan River…? (New Century Version)

Look: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translated as Look calls attention to what is being said. In some languages it is more natural to say “behold” or “pay attention.”

Rabbi: This word is a transliteration of a Hebrew word that means “my great one.” When John wrote his gospel, people used this word as a title of respect for an important religious teacher or leader. It does not refer to a teacher at a school. Use an expression that is natural and shows proper respect.

See how you translated this term in 3:2b and 1:38, and see the notes there.

beyond the Jordan: This phrase refers to the east side of the Jordan River. In some languages it may be natural to make one or both of these points explicit. For example:

the east side of the Jordan (Good News Translation)
-or-
the other side of the Jordan River (New Century Version)

3:26c

the One you testified about: John’s followers used this expression to make clear whom they were talking about. Perhaps they also wanted to remind John of what he had done for Jesus. Maybe they did not think that it was right that Jesus had more disciples than John after John helped him.

Jesus was the one about whom John had testified (told what he knew). John testified that Jesus was the Son of God. See John 1:15, 1:29–34. Here are other ways to translate this expression:

the man to whom you bore witness (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
the one you identified as the Messiah (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
you spoke about a man (Contemporary English Version)

testified: The verb testified means “told what he knew was true.” In this context John has said positive things about Jesus. John had spoken well of Jesus and had declared that he was “the Lamb of God” and “the Son of God.” See the note on “testimony” at 1:19a.

3:26d–e

He is baptizing, and everyone is going to Him: These clauses indicate that John’s disciples were not happy about what was happening. Previously, John had been the only one who baptized people. Now Jesus was becoming popular and was baptizing people.

3:26d

He: The pronoun He refers to Jesus. In some languages it is more natural to supply the name. For example

Jesus is baptizing

baptizing: The verb baptizing means to wash a person with water in a special religious ritual. In this context the ritual represented purification from sin. It did not mean that the person was washed to remove dirt. Baptism also marked the beginning of a person’s life as one of God’s pure people. See how you translated this word in 3:22c.

See also baptize, baptism in Key Biblical Terms.

3:26e

everyone is going to Him: This clause is a hyperbole, an exaggeration. It emphasizes that many people were going to Jesus. But not every person in the area was going to Jesus. You may need to indicate in some way that the speaker is exaggerating. For example:

everyone in the world is running to him
-or-
absolutely everybody is going to him!

In other languages it may be necessary to remove the exaggeration. For example:

more and more people are going to him!
-or-
look at how many people are going to him!

going to Him: The implied idea is that people were going to Jesus to be baptized. In some languages it may be more natural to make this explicit. For example:

now all the people are going to him ⌊and are being baptized⌋
-or-
look at all the people going to him ⌊to be baptized⌋ !

In some languages it may be necessary to make it explicit that these people were not going to John and his disciples. For example:

everybody is going to him instead of coming to us. (New Living Translation (2004))

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