Within English there are many specific forms of English used by a group, large or small, for its particular enterprise or need. In Language Schools in Asia there are courses in such things as Scientific English, Pilots' English, Lawyers' English and so on. For about as long as English has been spoken, and most decidedly since it became the dominant and first language of Britain, there has been what we may call RELIGIOUS ENGLISH --more specifically the language/idiom of prayer & worship.
Within this form of English the most obvious (but not only) difference from the English used by the BBC for news on the World Service is the retention of the second person singular (Thou, Thee, Thine) for addressing God.
This Religious English exists in what we may call a maximum form and a minimum form. The minimum form is found in the RSV Bible where "Thou" is used for addressing Deity but not for man. The maximum form is in the KJV Bible and the Book of Common Prayer, where "Thou" is retained as the second person singular for both God and man.
Here my discussion is presuming only the minimum form and its use in public worship of any denomination.
The basic doctrinal reason (belonging to the dogma of the Holy Trinity) for retaining the second person singular Pronoun [Thou, Thee, Thy, Thine] for God is that the God whom Jews and Christians worship is One Lord, One God. He is one Deity, One Godhead and One Divinity. Thus the singular pronoun. The problem with using "You" for Deity is that this Pronoun can be either singular or plural and thus does not communicate with absolutely clarity the uniqueness of the unity of God as the LORD God. The pronoun "You" can suggest tritheism while "Thou" for Deity can only suggest monotheism.
Further, since the essential mystery of Christianity is belief in the Unity of the One God [Deity/Divinity/Godhead] where there is Unity in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, the use of "Thou" is also important for addressing each one of the Trinity, the Father & the Son and the Holy Ghost, when prayer so requires.
Thus "Thou" is used when the One God [as the unique Three in One and One in Three] is addressed or when one or another of the Three Persons, each one of whom possesses the one Godhead entirely and wholly, is addressed.
The other doctrinal reason (belonging to the doctrine of worship) is that "Thou" in long centuries of usage has acquired a double function for worshippers who use the Pronoun. It carries with it the sense of Reverence & Awe & Humility before the Majesty of God and also at the same time communicates the sense of intimacy and friendship with God. And this double religious feeling is entirely what true worship must include for Christians. They must gratefully acknowledge and never forget either that God is the LORD, their eternal and infinite Creator and Judge or that the same God in Jesus Christ and by the Holy Ghost has drawn near to them to adopt them as children and to call them His friends.
Thus "Thou" performs this double function for the devout. Now it is clear that in the Hebrew & Greek of the Bible there is no obvious justification in the use of pronouns used for God and man for distinguishing in translation between God and man where pronouns are concerned. And this point is made in the prefaces of modern versions of the Bible and prayer books where the modern "You" is used of God and man. However, what we can say is that the whole way of addressing Deity is very different from the addressing of man within the Bible and so what is not there in pronouns is there in syntax!
This said, we can move to claim the following. First, both "thou" and "you" in modern English are used for the second person singular, where only one person is in mind. "You" is most common but everyone with a little education recognizes "thou" when the newspaper has the headlines, "Thou shalt not..." Therefore, since both words are second person singular pronouns then in translating ancient texts the translator can use either or both words and still be faithful to the original and to modern English. So where there is an ancient tradition in Religious English [and even in Standard English] of always and only using one of these, "Thou," for deity then the translator can use it with integrity and the worshipper use it unto edification.
Thus in the NIV and in the RC English Mass of the 1960s/1970s there should have been the use of "Thou" for Deity as there had been in the RSV & NEB! Much later confusion would have been avoided!
The real [and only] reason why "Thou" was removed from Religious English in the 1960s was to satisfy the pressure from the powerful Zeitgeist of that decade which deeply affected both Evangelicals ( see the NIV) and Roman Catholics (see the Mass in English) simultaneously. By the spirit of the age the need was felt to make God available and familiar, relevant and intelligible, accessible and NEW - therefore the YOU-God was invented.
August 29, 2002
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon
Minister of Christ Church, Biddulph Moor,
England & Vice-President and Emissary-at-Large
of The Prayer Book Society of America
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