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Just in the past few months, I've been coming across the word bible as a lowercase word. I'm not talking about the word as used in, say, "the fisherman's bible," or such similar uses; rather, the appearance of the word when it clearly refers to the Holy Bible, as in the Judeo-Christian Scriptures.

As a lifelong Christian, I am somewhat concerned (assuming tentatively there is a trend) that the use of the word bible, when referring to the Holy Bible, may be related to a general devaluing of this traditionally sacred book.

My questions, then: a) "Is there a trend toward replacing the capital B in Bible with a lowercase b?"; and b) Are there data that substantiate this trend, if in fact it is a trend?

rhetorician
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  • @MichaelHarvey "King James Bible", for me is an American term. In Britain it is usually known as the "Authorised Version", or "Authorised KJV". I don't particularly like the name "King James Version", as there was more than one King James. There were five previous ones in Scotland and also King James II, of England (VII of Scotland) , who was a Roman Catholic anyway, and would presumably not have recognised the bible named after his father! – WS2 Jan 18 '20 at 12:32
  • @Michael google ngrams is case sensitive, so it could be used to compare. – Mitch Jan 18 '20 at 13:14
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    Bear in mind that for a lot of folks these days it takes too much effort to hold down the shift key. – Hot Licks Jan 18 '20 at 13:41
  • @Mitch - but how to exclude the fisherman's or vegan's bibles (or Bibles)? – Michael Harvey Jan 18 '20 at 13:53
  • Without exception, style guides used by publishers, academic institutions and the like require the capitalisation of the [Christian] Bible, and versions thereof, 'King James Bible, New English Bible, etc. These days, I surmise, much textual matter (e.g. on the web) bypasses editing processes which would catch lowercasing of that word. As to whether there is a 'trend' in that direction, I think that is mainly a matter of opinion, and hence off-topic for this site. – Michael Harvey Jan 18 '20 at 13:55
  • Yes, I do understand the use of a lower case as a signal that the writer does not buy into the belief system, and I think you are right that the lc version is more common than it used to be. The same goes for lc god and christian. – JD2000 Jan 18 '20 at 14:49
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    Google ngram viewer shows a marked increase in the frequency of Christian bible after about 1980, but this is far outstripped by a huge increase in the frequency of Christian Bible - so while the lc version has become more common in absolute terms, it actually seems to have become less common in percentage terms. christian bible is nowhere. – JD2000 Jan 18 '20 at 15:24
  • @MichaelHarvey whatever one does with ngrams, it is at least based on data. This question is not asking for people's opinions and should not be closed as such. – Mitch Jan 18 '20 at 15:36
  • You also have to consider that English is a Lingua Franca. Many languages might not capitalize it and then you see it on the internet (as you can see the internet or the Internet in proper English). The same happens with the word english. For the language, I might well omit the capital letter in an informal post, whereas for the English people it feels more awkward. Anyway, I am sure there is a trend. I chose not the say God or Bible with capital letters usually in Spanish as we never capitalize nouns of that type and I don't see why making the exception. Same with English. Language is free. – Pablo GM May 11 '21 at 13:18

2 Answers2

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Generally speaking, capital letters are used with proper nouns while lowercase letters are used with common nouns.

For example:

1. I met President Trump.
2. I met the president.

In the first sentence, President is part of a specific title, but in the second sentence, it's simply a generic class.

This specific distinction is also made clear by, for example, the definition of bible at Merriam-Webster:

1 capitalized, religion
a : the sacred scriptures of Christians comprising the Old Testament and the New Testament
b : the sacred scriptures of some other religion (such as Judaism)
3 capitalized, religion : a copy or an edition of the Bible
// gave each of her grandchildren a Bible
4 : a publication that is preeminent especially in authoritativeness or wide readership
// the fisherman's bible
// the bible of the entertainment industry

Bible is (normally) only capitalized if it's talking about a specific religious text. (Or if it's the actual title of something.)

The question is somewhat confusing, however, because it starts off by implying that this distinction is already clear. It also seems to at least imply that it's not asking about the difference between a common noun and a proper noun, but the incorrect use of the lowercase when it comes to the proper noun in the case of the Bible itself.

In other words, it could be paraphrased like this:

Has anybody noticed a recent trend of writing Holy bible rather than Holy Bible?

If that's really what's being asked, then I'd agree that this would be unusual. It wouldn't follow common conventions of style or punctuation.

But the claim would also need to be backed up by some kind of metric or other objective evidence to show that there actually is such a trend—and one which could then be explained in some way. As a simple statement, it could just be a subjectively increasing annoyance over seeing a mistake—like any other mistake in grammar—that only appears to be increasingly common.

Jason Bassford
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I am not able to supply a direct answer to "Is there a trend...?" and "Are there data...? And I sense that it may be difficult to find anyone who is.

If it helps I can, though, express my own view about the matter, which may to some extent reflect the attitudes of others.

For me it would depend on context.

If I were saying Holy Bible I would always use a capital HB - not necessarily for religious reasons. I would do the same for Austen's Pride and Prejudice as it is the name of a work of literature.

However "bible" and words deriving from it e.g. "biblical", written alone, I would normally not capitalise - for the reason that it would only be a shorthand informal everyday reference to the HB.

If I were saying something like "Following the sale at the bookshop there were a number of bibles left on the shelf" - I don't think I would use a capital B. I'm not sure why, but it just seems inappropriate to me.

But if I wanted to draw attention to the sacredness or the majesty of a quotation I would either write "Holy Bible", or possibly Bible with a capital, if it felt appropriate to do so.

In a footnote it would be important to refer to the particular translation - such as Authorised Version and subsequently "AV". But far more likely, most authors would quote the name of the book of the bible - such as Deuteronomy, followed by "AV" - which would always be capitalised.

As a clergyman once told me, in my youth, "the bible isn't a book - it is a library".

WS2
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    Please would the drive-by shooter have the courtesy to explain their reason for down voting my answer. It might prove helpful. – WS2 Jan 18 '20 at 12:36
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    I'm not the drive-by shooter, but this answer doesn't actually address the question. – Peter Shor Jan 18 '20 at 12:50
  • Possibly the downvoter thought that "For me it would depend on context." had a strong smell of opinion about it? – Michael Harvey Jan 18 '20 at 13:16
  • @MichaelHarvey I take the point made about that. However is there any likelihood someone will supply an answer to such a question as this which is not based in some way on opinion? I rather think it unlikely that anyone will be in possession of empirical data which supports an answer one way or the other. However I will edit my answer to recognise that fact. – WS2 Jan 18 '20 at 14:49
  • @WS2 - answers that are, in themselves, perfectly good can be voted down merely because the original question is deplored for some reason. This has happened to me. The number of close votes the question has attracted can be a clue. – Michael Harvey Jan 18 '20 at 15:29
  • Voting shouldn't work in a like/dislike manner in SE. But some times it does. Those votes get mixed with proper votes. So, there is no way to know, really. Some might downvote because they consider it out of line with the site, some because they don't share your concern; who knows. I find it an interesting question that can make for an interesting answer, though. Thus, good for SE. Others might see it as too social. The trend as you seem to understand it, IMO, is correlated with the overall decline of religion, rather than being a properly linguistic one. Other factors should be considered. – Pablo GM May 11 '21 at 13:42
  • The question is probably voted down because editorialising about the decline of western civilisation is out of place in a question here. There is also a tendency of people to post rants disguised as questions, where they're less interested in an answer than having the opportunity to vent, and such questions should be closed rather than merely voted down. But if you wish to discuss voting practices, voting is a topic for Meta, not here. – Stuart F May 11 '21 at 14:51