A new app gives you the ability to change all the “you”s in the Bible to “y’all,” which in a place like Texas — it is hoped — would make the Bible more readable and understandable. Part of this is to appeal to a certain religious culture where y’all is the preferred nomenclature. As the app’s creator explains, it’s also partially about grammar:
Just about any time I teach from the Scriptures I have to point out a place where the English Bible says “you,” but the original Hebrew or Greek indicates you plural rather than you singular. This means the original author was addressing to a group of people, but a modern English reader can’t detect this because in common English we use “you” for both singular (“you are awesome”) and plural (“you are a team”). This often leads modern readers to think “you” refers to him or her as an individual, when in fact it refers to the community of faith. . .
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
