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 ta (他) is written; where he is referred to as divine, especially after the ascension, the reverential ta (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 systems 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 one 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 in the following way: “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 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, but most translations, especially those published in the 21st century, do not. Two other languages where this is also done (in most Bible translations) are the closely related Indonesian and Malay. In both 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 this chapter in the World Atlas of Language Structures on different approaches to personal pronouns.

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 Ezekiel 40:3

When he brought me there: The verb phrase he brought me is repeated for the third time in this subsection, so Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch omits it. This is acceptable if this whole clause is simply understood as a summary of Ezekiel’s movement described in the previous verses, in which case the meaning is “When I arrived there.” But other translations see a progression here; for example, New Century Version says “He took me closer to the buildings” (similarly Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New Living Translation), New English Bible and Revised English Bible have “He led me towards it [that is, the city],” and Complete Jewish Bible translates “That is where he took me.” This latter interpretation is preferable.

The Hebrew word hinneh rendered behold is used four times in this chapter (verses 3, 5, 17, 24) to make the narrative vivid and dramatic. Block renders it “I noticed,” and Good News Translation has “I saw.” Translators are encouraged to use whatever means are available in their languages to make the narrative lively, like someone going from place to place, seeing one new and interesting thing after another. Some say “and then I saw.”

There was a man, whose appearance was like bronze: Ezekiel saw a man who was bright and shining like polished metal. This man was similar to the one Ezekiel saw in the vision in chapter 8. For bronze see 1.4. New Century Version renders this clause as “a man who looked as if he were made of bronze” (similarly New International Reader’s Version), but what he was made of is not as important as the way he was shining brightly. Considering what he looked like, this was not an ordinary man, so some languages may have to say “a figure that looked like a man, which was shining like polished metal.”

With a line of flax and a measuring reed in his hand: The man was holding two items for measuring things. Flax is a plant that grows about 1 meter (3 feet) tall. Its seeds contain oil, known as linseed oil, and its stalks are dried, beaten and woven into fine material, called linen, or string and rope. A line of flax refers to a string made of flax. Jerusalem Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, and Christian Community Bible say “a flax cord,” but many translations use the more familiar term “linen,” saying “a cord of linen [thread]” (Revised English Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) or “a linen cord” (New Revised Standard Version, New International Version, English Standard Version, New American Bible). However, the actual material of the cord is less important than its purpose as a tape measure, so better renderings are “a linen measuring tape/cord” (New International Reader’s Version, New Living Translation), “a [linen] tape measure” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version), and “a [linen] string for measuring” (similarly New Century Version). Presumably the linen cord was used for measuring the size of large items, such as buildings and land (compare Zech 2.1). We do not know whether this cord was a certain length, as the measuring reed was, or whether it had measurements marked on it, like modern tape measures. In any case, Ezekiel does not describe the man using this linen cord at any stage in the vision. The measuring reed was probably a papyrus stem, or the stem of a giant reed that grows profusely in the Nile River. Both these plants grow 5-6 meters (16-20 feet) long. However, by the time of Ezekiel the reed may already have become a recognized unit of measurement, 6 cubits long (see Ezek 40.5), so it may have been made of any sort of wood. Therefore it is probably best to render measuring reed as “measuring stick” (Contemporary English Version) or “measuring rod” (Good News Translation, New International Version, New International Reader’s Version, New Living Translation, New King James Version , Revised English Bible, Jerusalem Bible/New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, Christian Community Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Moffatt).

And he was standing in the gateway: The pronoun he refers to the man shining like polished metal. Since there were three gateways into the Temple area (see verses 5-27), we do not know which one the gateway refers to. Therefore Good News Translation renders in the gateway as “by a gateway,” and Contemporary English Version has “near one of the gates.” Translators will need to render this phrase in the most appropriate way in their languages. The gateway here was not a simple gate or door, as we know it, but a large building that provided access to the Temple area (see the comments on 8.3). The gateways Ezekiel describes in this chapter were 50 cubits long and 25 cubits wide, that is, about 25 meters (or 84 feet) long and 12.5 meters (or 42 feet) wide (see verses 13 and 15). A better rendering for gateway here is “gatehouse,” which indicates that it was a building, not just a gate. Another possible model is “entry house.”

In some languages the sense of this verse might flow more smoothly if the final clause is placed earlier in the verse. A model that does this is:

• When he brought me closer to the buildings, I saw a man standing at a gateway. The man shone brightly like polished metal and he was holding a [linen] tape measure and a measuring rod.

Quoted with permission from Gross, Carl & Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Ezekiel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .