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

Translation commentary on Sirach 17:15 - 17:18

Their ways are always before him means “The Lord is always aware of what people do” (Good News Translation). It is good to express the pronoun him with the noun phrase “The Lord,” as in Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version, since this is the beginning of a new section. For the same reason it is also good to use here a noun like “people” instead of the pronoun Their. Otherwise some readers and hearers would have no way of knowing to whom Their refers. But as we have suggested earlier, a first person pronoun is also possible here; for example, the whole line may be rendered “The Lord watches us all the time” or “The Lord always knows what we do.”

They will not be hid from his eyes: The pronoun They refers back to Their ways. Good News Translation expresses the idea of this line, but it shifts the focus a little. The idea is not that we can hide ourselves from God (as Good News Translation seems to say), but that there is no way of hiding what we are doing from him. It would be better to say “They [or, We] cannot hide their [or, our] deeds from him.”

Some manuscripts add verses 16-17a. They should be included in a footnote at the end of verse 15 (so Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation).

Their ways from youth tend toward evil: Good News Translation has a natural way of expressing this in English, saying “From childhood on they [people] tend to be evil.” Compare Gen 8.21.

And they are unable to make for themselves hearts of flesh in place of their stony hearts is literally “and they have not been able to make their hearts fleshy instead of stony.” Compare Ezek 11.19; 36.26. Hearts of flesh is used here in a positive sense, as opposed to the negative metaphor of stony hearts. The image hearts of flesh is something of a problem in English, so Good News Translation abandons the image and speaks of a heart that is “more human.” The human heart is, of course, a fleshy muscle. To speak of making a stony heart fleshy is thus to speak of making it “more human.” However, ben Sira is making the point that humans tend to be evil from their childhood on. So making their hearts “more human” may give the impression that they become more evil. Contemporary English Version‘s model tends to solve this problem by saying “and have a cruel heart that they cannot change,” or we may say “and their hearts are hard and stubborn and they cannot change them.”

For in the division of the nations of the whole earth: In Greek this line (which echoes Deut 32.8) is part of the sentence that follows in the rest of verse 17. Good News Translation does not attempt to make this evident. It would be better to say “When he divided the whole earth into nations….” The reader will notice that the rest of verse 17 also reflects Deut 32.8-9. This particular line, however, is placed in a footnote for textual reasons. It does not appear to be part of ben Sira’s original writing.

He appointed a ruler for every nation, but Israel is the Lord’s own portion: This reflects Deut 32.8-9, without being an exact quote. Ruler is correct here; it is ben Sira’s interpretation of different (and difficult) wording in the Deuteronomy passage. Good News Translation might have done better to let the second line of this verse reflect its own translation of the Deuteronomy passage, and say “but the Lord chose Israel for himself.” Good News Translation as it stands, however, is not wrong. Contemporary English Version is clear with:

• The Lord placed rulers
over all the nations,
but he himself rules Israel.

Some manuscripts add verse 18. It should be included in a footnote at the end of verse 17 (so Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation).

Whom, being his first-born, he brings up with discipline: His first-born is Israel. Rather than translate this verse as a relative clause, Good News Translation repeats “Israel,” and makes it the subject of an independent sentence, but it is still complex. A simpler rendering of this line is “Israel is his firstborn, so the Lord corrects and punishes Israel as he brings him up” or “He raises Israel as his own firstborn son, so he corrects and punishes him.” See Deut 8.5; Amos 3.2.

And allotting to him the light of his love, he does not neglect him: Good News Translation renders this well, but it would be better with an introductory “But”: “But he gives him the light of his love and never neglects him.” If the phrase the light of his love is too strange or difficult, we may say “But he shows him his love and never neglects him.”

An alternative model for verse 18 is:

• He raises Israel as his own firstborn son, so he corrects and punishes him. But he shows him his love and never neglects him.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Sirach. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.