Thee, Thy, and Thou in the KJV Bible

One common complaint about the King James Version of the Bible is that it is filled with archaic language. This is quite true. For example, Genesis 41:3 mentions the word “kine”. How many people today know that this is actually an old word for cattle? There are many other archaic words in it as well – right off the top of your head, do you know what “chapiter” or “ague” means?

Most of the time, though, what people are complaining about is not its vocabulary but its use of words like “thee”, “thy”, and “thou”. These words made it much harder to read, and people haven’t used them in centuries. So why are they used? After all, the KJV translation has been revised numerous times since it was first created in 1611 and these archaic pronouns are still there. Why?

As it turns out, there is a reason: the word “thee” and the word “you” do not mean the same thing. “Thee” is a singular word and “you” is a plural word. The reason the KJV translators used “thee” and “thy” is to preserve the difference between singular and plural pronouns. The KJV Bible is the only English translation of the Bible has that done that; all other modern translations have replaced “thee” with “you” and obliterated the difference.

Does it matter? Well, let’s take a look at a passage:

Luke 22:31: “And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:
32 But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.”

What’s actually going on here? Well, now that we know that “you” is plural and “thee” is singular, the passage takes on new meaning. When Jesus said “Satan hath desired to have you”, what He means is that Satan has desired to have the disciples. We know this because the “you” in that verse is plural, and therefore must refer to a group of people. However, when Jesus says “I have prayed for thee” in verse 32, the word “thee” is singular, so Jesus must be saying that He has prayed for Peter. In other words, what Jesus is actually saying is this: “Simon, Satan wants to destroy the disciples, but I have prayed for you personally. When you are converted, strengthen your brothers.”

When we read this passage in the NIV all of these nuances are lost:

Luke 22:31: “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat.
32 But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”

Do you see how the meaning is lost? Here it looks like Jesus is saying “Simon, Satan wants to destroy you, but I’ve prayed for you.” Now, it is true that in the online NIV translation I used to look up this verse there was a footnote saying that the “you” in verse 31 is plural, but how many people actually read that footnote or understood it? (For that matter, how many NIV Bibles actually have that footnote? The NKJV had no such footnote, and I suspect most Bibles lack it.) I would venture to guess that of all the people who have read those two verses in the NIV Bibles, almost none of them realized what was going on.

The bottom line is this: while the use of “thee” and “thy” in the KJV Bible is archaic and does make it harder to read, it has a purpose behind it: that language maintains the distinction between singular and plural pronouns, which can affect what a passage means. Translations that don’t use that language (including the New King James) may be easier to read, but they obliterate that distinction and, in doing so, some of the meaning is lost.