What are Y O U talking about?

robhic

Excuse me if this has been discussed before but I've been meaning to ask. Why is the word YOU or YOUR always capitalized in the NWT? Most (all?) of the quotes I've seen always capitalize the words but I've never seen another bible do this. Is there some reason?

Rom 6:11

Likewise also YOU: reckon yourselves to be dead indeed with reference to sin but living with reference to God by Christ Jesus.

Rom 6:12

Therefore do not let sin continue to rule as king in YOUR mortal bodies that YOU should obey their desires.

Rom 6:13

Neither go on presenting YOUR members to sin as weapons of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, also YOUR members to God as weapons of righteousness.

Robert

Satanus

It's to indicate the plural.

S

new light

I've always found that ANNOYING.

lurk

it always felt like finger pointing to me.or was that just my guilty conscience

lurk

Justin

English used to have a distinction between the second person singular and plural. In the King James Version "ye" is the plural form for "you," and "thou" is the singular. In this way, the older English could reflect the Biblical languages. I can't faul the NWT for attempting to make up for this, but the way it was done looks like an emphasis technique rather than a grammatical one.

kgfreeperson

Thanks for the question (and answers!) That's confused me, too.

euripides

As Satanus already pointed out, in the front of the NWT I believe they explain that it's meant to show the use of the second person plural as opposed to the singular. In the examples you (singular) provide (and typically where you (plural) see it), its a useful thing to know, at least to know that Jesus (or whomever) isn't pointing to just one person. Most translators find other ways around this instead of using ALL CAPS.

It's just as amusing to imagine the writer SHOUTING at that point in the text though.

Euripides

the_classicist

We should all switch to the southern "y'all" to indicate second person plural. Likewise also y'all: reckon yourselves to be dead indeed with reference to sin but living with reference to God by Christ Jesus. Fits well with the "reckon."

robhic

Thanks for all the answers. Not only did I learn why the WTS did what they did,I learned from Justin (above) some other interesting information.

And, being from the South, I was going to make the humorus comment about using the term "y'all" to denote the plural but someone beat me to it!

Robert

What are Y O U talking about?

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