Forum: ell.stackexchange.com
Tags: <pronouns>
Title: Does the word God get the pronoun "it" or "he"?
Question: Does the word  God  get the pronoun "it" or "he"?    For example: I want to say thanks to God for what  it  /  he  gave  me.   I am talking about the God of Monotheism ( force majeure ) - like what the Jews and Muslims believe in. [I don't know whether the Christian God is considered the same God, because of the Trinity.]

Answers:
sents: text: The God of the Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, basically) is traditionally a father figure, and the pronoun used is "he" (or
text: "He", if you're using the majestic capital).
text: Sometimes people will subvert this and use "She", either as a tongue-in-cheek substitution or as an earnest attempt at gender inclusivity, but in general, if you're talking about the God of a monotheistic religion, the pronoun to use is "He".
text: If you're talking about a higher being of a more personified pantheon (e.g. Greek or Norse myth), then use the pronoun appropriate to the gender of said higher being.
text: The one pronoun you never use for God, any God, is "it".
text: 1 1
text: Well, OK, maybe Cthulhu.
text: Sometimes.
text: But it's best to just not talk about him/
text: her/it. :)
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/50/Martha
score: 33
sents: text: This question must be understood as a question of usage.
text: The primary source are the relevant books ( the books ).
text: They are so old that all possible copyrights have expired by now, so the books are easily found online.
text: Therefore, we can inspect which gender the relevant books ascribe.
text: You are asking on an English language site, so we'll inspect English translations of the books.
text: Note that there are all kinds of problems with translations; the question which gender historical texts ascribe to their gods would be harder to answer and involve critical examinations of language, culture and the text histories.
text: I'll give two examples for the difficulties involved, with the caveat that I'm not a theologician and have no knowledge of Hebrew.
text: Hebrew apparently has no grammatical neuter.
text: Every word is male or female.
text: That means that in Hebrew, god cannot be "it" at all for purely grammatical reasons.
text: Obviously that weakens the conclusions we can draw from god's original grammatical gender.
text: One of the words for the god in the Torah is Elohim, a plural; if we can believe the wikipedia entry about the subject , in Genesis 1:26-27 "Elohim" creates man and woman "in his image" (their image?).
text: The New York Times had an article by a Rabbi touching this very topic as part of a general examination of how gender appears in the Hebrew bible.
text: It suggests that YHWH, one of the names for god in the bible, was actually read backwards as "Hu/Hi ", meaning "he/she".
text: To me that sounds as close to "it" as you can get in a language which doesn't have "it".
text: But you are asking about English, so we'll examine English translations.
text: In English there is a grammatical neuter, so referring to god -- a person-like entity -- with "He" makes a statement about the physical gender ascribed to, well, him.
text: Torah : We find an English translation here , and the first book, the Genesis, uses "He" in the few cases it doesn't say "God"; for example in the fifth sentence: And God called the light day, and the darkness He called night.
text: (But remember the translation problems.)
text: Quran :
text: An English translation is here , and in the 2nd Surah the translation uses "He", for example in 2:20:
text: And if Allah had willed, He could have taken away their hearing and their sight.
text: This should answer your question.
text: Note that it is not immediately clear what the original authors of the texts wrote, and what they meant with what they wrote.
text: For example, the Catholic virgin Mary cult may well be rooted in a misleading translation.
text: As a side note: Let's suppose that the original authors indeed wrote and meant that god is male.
text: Then it is still up to debate whether what they wrote is correct (from the standpoint of a believer).
text: After all, the authors were children of their (patriarchal) times and may have misunderstood, mis-interpreted or liberally embellished their visions.
text: My girlfriend says "When god created man she was only practicing" (for example, she mutilated the chromosomes).
text: But as far as the actual English usage goes, it's clear that the correct pronoun is "He".
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/15471/Peter - Reinstate Monica
score: 12
sents: text: The rules are basically the same as for any noun or proper noun, usually signified by the capitalisation of the first letter.
text: If you are using an upper case G, this denotes that it's a name, and a name which is masculine, the answer is 'he'.
text: In polytheistic faiths, it can be more specific, but it's still basically the same grammar as other nouns.
text: A god (lower case g, a noun), would be he, a goddess is the feminine form, she.
text: If it's plural, it's always 'they'.
text: In most cases using 'it' for people, or anything person-like is disrespectful, displaying an opinion that you don't think they should be person-like.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/10359/AJFaraday
score: 7
sents: text: The God of the Abrahamatic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) is traditionally referred to with a masculine pronoun.
text: However, it is worth mentioning that ancient Hebrew had no gender-neutral pronoun, and typically used the masculine form as a default.
text: So, it could be argued that the original intent was gender-neutral, although the monotheistic God was generally seen as a father-figure of sorts, if a formless (and therefore technically agendered) one.
text: Interestingly enough, the earthly presence of God (in Hebrew shechinah , roughly akin to the Christian concept of the 'Holy Spirit') is both grammatically and traditionally considered feminine.
text: Ancient philosophy often considered the concept of initiating a creative act to be symbolically masculine (i.e. the "seminal" input), while the aspect of shaping or finilazing that action was seen as feminine.
text: Many ancient religions considered the sky to be masculine and the earth feminine as a result.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/30911/IndigoFenix
score: 6
sents: text: Yes, you use the pronoun
text: He, not he/it, for God.
text: However, if you are talking about a god or goddess, you use he or she accordingly.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/9259/Khan
score: 3

Summary of the answers:
If you are using an upper case G, this denotes that God is a name, then the answer is 'he'.  But as far as the  actual English usage goes,  it's clear that the correct pronoun is He. The God of the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) is traditionally referred to with a masculine pronoun.   It is worth mentioning that ancient Hebrew had no gender-neutral pronoun, and typically used the masculine form as a default.  A god (lower case g), would be he, and a goddess in the feminine form would be she. The one pronoun you never use for God, any God, is "it".
The masculine pronoun 'he' is typically used. 'It' is never used.