Why Is The Bible Capitalized?

Why Is The Bible Capitalized?

Why Is The Bible Capitalized? You always capitalize the Holy Bible when describing a proper noun, consisting of different versions of the Scriptures, both Christian and Jewish. For instance, “King James Scriptures,” “Gideon’s Bible,” or “Hebrews Bible.” “The Holy Bible” is a suitable title for a publication, and in this case, the word Holy Bible should be constantly capitalized.

Are Bible Books Capitalized?

Bible books are always capitalized but never italicized. When referring to a book in the Bible, the word “book” is usually shortened.

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Capitalization In Bible Translations Affects Our Thinking

We will talk about how capitalization in translations can affect our interpretation. Now I’m going to be referring specifically to talking about the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament as people call it. It’s not.

When we look at it, these traditional translations often have capitalized words that they presume are either referring to God or referring to a presumed messianic figure.

So when we’re looking at talking about God and says he, for example, or him, and they presume it’s referring to God, they capitalized the H even if it’s in the middle of the sentence, for example.

One thing to recognize here is that this does not go on in Hebrew. There is no distinction in Hebrew. It’s just a single cause for all the letters. There’s not an upper case in a lower case. So any capitalization of any sort is based upon an individual’s interpretation, based on an opinion.

So, capitalization does not exist in Hebrew like this. So whenever we see when it says he is capitalized, that is an assumption. Now a lot of cases, it’s going to be obvious in a lot of cases that it’s going to have that context with it, and we’re gonna know yeah, that’s probably talking about God and so, therefore, it’s capitalized.

However, there are a few issues where there might be some controversy. So an example that I’ve seen before is people talking about Abraham believing in God, and he couches him as righteousness in Genesis. This is interesting because, of course, the traditional view is that he is talking about God.

But some people argue it means something different than it means it’s talking about crediting gauze being one God of his word type of thing. And I’m not saying that either one is my hitting on the subject, but it illustrates that capitalization can affect our thinking on it.

Just knowing that this capitalization doesn’t exist in Hebrew isn’t enough that it still predisposes us to think that we’re still primed to think that that’s talking about God, whether it is or isn’t, even if we know in our minds that well this is just their interpretation it still affects us now the thing is a lot of people don’t know that a lot of people just assume that it is authoritative that this capitalization is definite they don’t realize that it’s opinion.

So also talk about things like, like I said, Messianic symbols that are perceived to be in the text. For example, in numbers when, when Balaam gives the prophecy about the star rising out of Jacob that says star in traditional translations, of course, it capitalizes the S.
Because it wants us to presume that it’s a messianic prophecy, and in the implications about Messianic stuff that are conventionally believed, they capitalize this S.

Therefore we’re automatically assuming if we believe in that sort of thing, if we have that kind of frame of mind, we’re going to assume, oh okay, a messianic prophecy type thing, and that may or may not be the case, and this goes on of course throughout the rest of the Hebrew Bible as well.

It’s something to be aware of because it affects our thinking. Even if we know, it still can affect our thinking because it predisposes us to think in the way they had their opinion. So something to consider something to keep in mind as you study.

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