Writing about God (for S.J.)

Introduction
Over the years, I have often wrestled with the limitations of the English language when writing about God. This is because my mother-tongue has remarkably few appropriate pronouns.

Masculine pronouns
Many translators continue to use solely masculine pronouns for God, even though there is strong Biblical evidence that this is not appropriate. Here is just one example amongst many: “Humankind was created as God’s reflection: in the divine image God created them; female and male, God made them” (Genesis 1:27; TIB).

In the light of this, I often use the Hebrew name ‘Yahweh’ for God, because it combines both feminine and masculine grammatical elements. The first syllable, ‘Yah’, is feminine, while the second, ‘weh’, is masculine (D. Wheeler-Reed: The Conversation).

I would greatly prefer to use inclusive pronouns such as ‘Her/Him’, and ‘S/He’ when writing about God. However, I know from long experience that this makes rhyming and scanning very difficult.

Singular or plural?
There is also a further issue to address. Bible translations generally refer to God as being singular, even though God’s quoted speech often uses plural pronouns such as ‘Us’ , ‘We’ and ‘Our’. This can be seen, for example, when God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us” (Genesis 1:26; NLT). One of God’s Hebrew names, ‘Elohim’, reflects this usage very clearly: the word itself is grammatically plural, yet it carries no connotations of polytheism.

In fact, all these usages are majestic or royal plurals, also known as ‘the royal we’. This grammatical form emphasises a single being’s majesty, greatness, dignity, authority, strength, power and excellence (Wikipedia).

In some ways it would be more accurate to refer to God with the pronouns ‘They’, ‘Them’, or ‘You’, as these words can be grammatically singular or plural, depending on their context. However, this could easily mislead readers into thinking the author embraces polytheism.

Conclusion
Having given these issues a good deal of thought over many years, I now understand more fully how important it is to use inclusive, gender-neutral, and singular/plural pronouns when writing about God. I will try as hard as I can to do this, though I know it is not going to be easy.