B is for Bible
Monday, September 21, 2009
In the past days, I have come to notice something that has startled and upset me. Maybe some people don't know it but I am certain there are many who do, but all names referring to the deity of Jesus Christ and the Holy Bible are to be capitalized. I do realize that we all make errors from time to time, but spelling "bible" with a lower case b throughout entire passages most likely isn't an overlooked mistake. I can imagine that you might be wondering why I care so much about this sort of the thing but here is my driving reason: we need to respect and honor the name of the Lord and his Word. It isn't that I think people who fail to capitalize things referring to the Deity and the Bible are horrible disrespects, are lazy, or just don't care; I care because I believe our Adversary has unknowingly crept into all our lives in subtle ways we may not have even comprehended. Do you think it is just a simple error that some may have not been taught a simple grammar rule or could it possibly be that there is a greater force at work in such a simple way that no one knows? I think it is the latter. We know to capitalize the first letter of cities, states, and other people yet there is a lack to remember to capitalize the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not striving to be a nit-picking grammar police officer or your English teacher, I just would like us all to remember one simple punctuation rule that honors God and brings the due respect to his name.
7 reader thoughts:
That's a good thought- I'll be try now to make sure I get it right, because it IS so important that we show the proper respect, especially to Jesus. I suppose maybe it's like not taking His name in vain?
One of my pet peeves is people not capitalizing Bible, Jesus, etc. Thank you. @)~
I've been thinking about the same kind of thing lately, I have been shocked at how even us Christians treat the name of Jesus so lightly, I'm beggining to realize that the commandment "do not use the name of the Lord your God in vain" really means, I always thought I just meant not using the "expression" so many use when something happens, but It really is saying to not use it or treat it as common. Thanks for taking time to write about such a small but significant thing!
In Christ,
Lindsey
I'm guilty of not always capitalizing the Bible. For some reason, I don't always notice when I don't, which is by no means an excuse. I'm going to be extra careful to always make sure that I capitalize my b's in Bible in the future. Thanks for pointing this out! I agree with the other commenter who mentioned this, I'm glad that you took the time to point this out, even though some may see it as a small, or insignificant detail.
LocaChica
I agree. What do you think about pronouns referring to God? His Word, His house (the church), living for Him or for him?
Great reminder! In my allegorical fantasy novel that I'm going to write, I'll be capitalizing the word King, because the King symbolizes Jesus, and I want people to stop and think about it.
Now, I know some people do this, and it is a good and commendable thing, but I don't think it is necessary to capitalize words such as "his" and "him." The Bible doesn't do this, so I don't think it is disrespectful to leave pronouns lower-case.
My parent's taught me respect for God from an early age, so I grew up knowing that God, Bible, Jesus, etc. should always be capitalized, and as a habit, I still capitalize them. But very good point... it bothers me when Christians don't capitalize God's name, also.
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