by Mark D. Taylor, NLT Bible Translation Committee
We all know that the King James Version (KJV) uses “thee and thou” language, and we intuitively know that the words thee and thou both mean “you.” But it might surprise you to realize that the KJV also uses the word you in many passages. Why is this?
Terms like thee and thou and thy sound very old-fashioned to us today, and they are. But there is a simple linguistic explanation for them. And to understand that, we need to brush up on our pronouns and how they are used.
We use first-person pronouns when we are speaking about ourselves: “Before I went to the store, my wife told me to get milk. She said that we needed milk for our breakfast.”
We use second-person pronouns when we are speaking to another person: “My wife said, ‘When you go to the store, remember to take your phone.’”
We use third-person pronouns when we are speaking about another person: “She went to the store to get new shirts for herself and her kids. They all needed new clothes.”
In English, we use the pronoun you to refer to a single person or a group of people. We also use you as both the subject of a sentence and the object of a sentence. But both Hebrew and Greek differentiate between singular and plural and between subject and object.
In the Elizabethan period and earlier, English used those same distinctions. So when the King James Version was translated during the first decade of the 1600s, it was natural to use a number of different second-person pronouns. Here’s a table that shows the pronouns used in the English of the Elizabethan period (when the KJV was being translated):
| SUBJECTIVE CASE | Singular | Plural | Possessive |
| First person | 1 | We | My/Our |
| Second person | Thou | Ye | Thy/Your |
| Third person masculine and feminine | He/She | They | His/Her/Their |
| OBJECTIVE CASE | Singular | Plural | Possessive |
| First Person | Me | Us | My/Our |
| Second Person | Thee | You | Thy/Your/Yours |
| Third person masculine and feminine | Him/Her | Them | Their/Theirs |
Here’s an example of how the various second-person pronouns are used in the KJV translation of Matthew 5:27-29:
Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
But modern translations use you and your in each of these instances. Here is the same passage as found in the New Living Translation (NLT):
“You have heard the commandment that says, ‘You must not commit adultery.’ But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. So if your eye—even your good eye—causes you to lust, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.”
The Revised Standard Version (RSV) of the Bible is in some sense a successor to the King James Version. It was published in 1952, which was within the lifetime of some of us, and of course we didn’t use “thee and thou” language except when we were reading the KJV. So the RSV translators broke with the KJV tradition, and they used the familiar you for both singular and plural, both as subject and object.
So the RSV translates Matthew 5:27-29 this way:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.”
But look at what the RSV does in Psalm 5, where the psalmist is speaking to God the Father:
1 Give ear to my words, O Lord;
give heed to my groaning.
2 Hearken to the sound of my cry,
my King and my God,
for to thee do I pray.
3 O Lord, in the morning thou dost hear my voice;
in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for thee, and watch.
Since the church had been accustomed to using “thee and thou” language for centuries, and it had come to be considered a kind of holy language, the RSV translators felt that they needed to retain “thee and thou” in certain passages where people are speaking directly to God.
Some people suggest that the KJV’s use of “thee and thou” language reflects a higher view of God and his Word—as though it sounds more holy—but the use of such language is simply the product of the time period in which the translation was produced. As always, translation work is most effective when it communicates in language that readers can readily understand—which changes over time.
Even though the KJV can be challenging to read and understand, pastors in thousands of churches still use it as their standard translation for preaching, and many people have memorized passages from the KJV. It is filled with beautiful language and has been tremendously influential and important in the history of English Bible translation.
Most important of all is that, regardless of translation, people are indeed reading the Bible, God’s message to all of us. Our prayer is that readers of the NLT, like the seventeenth-century readers of the KJV, will encounter God’s Word afresh, in language they can understand.