Should We Capitalize Divine Pronouns?

Divine pronouns are pronouns that refer to God. In English Christian writing, divine pronouns are often capitalized even when they are not the first word in a sentence (He, Him, His, Who, Whom, Whose, etc.). Many English-speaking Christians feel that it is disrespectful to refer to God as “he” rather than “He”.

This convention of capitalizing divine pronouns did not exist until the early seventeenth century CE. Before that, English writers and Bible translators did not capitalize divine pronouns. In fact, they also did not capitalize the first letter of the word “god”—even when it referred to the true God! Does this mean that English writers were not respectful to God until the seventeenth century CE? Of course not.

Moreover, in the original texts of the Bible, no measures were taken to specially write divine pronouns in a special manner. Rather, pronouns referring to God were written in exactly the same manner as pronouns referring to anyone else. Neither the ancient Israelites nor the earliest Christians thought that it was disrespectful to God if they did not “capitalize” divine pronouns.

The main reason why divine pronouns should not be capitalized in Bible translations is because it adds an extra layer of interpretation to the text which God did not intend. For example, consider how 1 John 5:18 is rendered in the NASB:

We know that no one who is born of God sins; but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him.

Because of the capitalizing of the pronoun, the reader of the NASB may be misled to think that the expression “He who was born of God” must refer to Jesus Christ. In reality, the original Greek text of the verse is ambiguous, and leaves open the possibility that the expression refers to a Christian instead. Throughout the Book of 1 John, “born of God” describes a true believer in Jesus Christ (2:29; 3:9; 4:7; 5:1, 4). However, because of the capitalizing of the pronoun, that possibility is closed off to the reader of the NASB.

The convention of capitalizing divine pronouns is not biblical, and was invented only in recent times. Christians are free to follow this convention if they want to. However, they should not impose this convention on others, nor condemn other Christians who choose not to follow this convention.