Featured They, Them, Their

All three land under the banner of the singular they. We use 'the singular they' a great deal in conversational English. It's also starting to be common in newspapers, blogs and books. But in some staid circles it is distained. But it's been around since 1450 and it's not going to go away any time soon.
Some famous authors used it : Lord Chesterfield, Langston Hughes, Jane Austen, George Eliot, William Thackeray, Milton and Shakespeare himself. So it has a fine pedigree.

However, I will cite some examples from the NIV that are, to me, awkward. I will also supply a rendering from another version. These will be snips and ellipses will be used.

James 2:14
What good is it,... if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? (NIV)
...what good is it if people say they have faith but do nothing to show it? (CEB)

James 3:13
Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it... (NIV)
Are any of you wise and understanding? Show that your actions are good...(CEB)

James 4:17
If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is a sin for them. (NIV)
It is a sin when someone knows the right thing to do and doesn't do it. (CEB)

James 5:13
Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. (NIV)
Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. (NLT)

James 5:14
Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church (NIV)
Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church (NLT)

2 John 1:10
If anyone comes to you... do not take them in your house or welcome them (NIV)
Whoever comes to you ...should neither be received nor welcomed into your home (CEB)

 

The Epicene Pronoun : Lincoln Republican (Lincoln, KS) Nov. 15, 1888, p.2.

"This usage is very common in conversation, so common that it can hardly be avoided without much painstaking. It is out of common speech that all our language forms have grown, and some of them, long approved and unquestioned, are quite as incongruous as this use of 'they' in place of the neglected common gender pronoun. It is perfectly proper, in fact the only proper thing, according to the grammars, to use 'he, his and him' to represent the common gender, but the use is awkward, and drives the unlettered people, to the use of 'they.' Really, there is no better reason for 'he' than for 'they,' and as 'they' is evidently the most natural, the grammarians should consent to its adoption."

 

A Higher English Grammar by Alexander Bain (1859)

"When both genders are implied, it is allowable to use the Plural...Grammarians frequently call this construction an error: not reflecting that it is equally an error to apply 'his' to feminine subjects. The best writers furnish examples of the use of the plural as a mode of getting out of the difficulty."

Bain (1818-1903) was a Scottish philosopher, rhetorician, grammarian and psychologist. He wrote four Grammars as textbooks. And the one cited from 1879 promoted the use of the singular 'they.'

 

The Missing Pronoun by Fred Newton Scott (1885)

"To the fast-coming objections that the proposed use of [singular they] is ungrammatical, inconsistent, illogical, and impracticable, it may be replied, in general, that the English language is full of absurdities and inconsistencies, and with all its faults we love it still."

"While the critics and philologists are quarreling over the relative advantages of two different modes of expression or pronunciation, the great talking public, which cannot very well suspend communication until the mooted question is decided, goes on talking after its own fashion, and finally talks that fashion into our grammars and dictionaries."

Scott was a linguist who became the president of the National Council of Teachers of English. Later headed up the Modern Language Association

 

In John MacArthur's book Reckless Faith he writes this :"We used to call someone 'a discriminating person' if they exercised keen judgment." (p.68)

In James White's book Pulpit Crimes he says : "It dishonors God's Word and a wise elder would take such a person aside and explain to them that such activities are improper for the child of God." (p.97)

"If a person is not taught to live in this fashion then there is every reason to question whether they have actually encountered God's saving grace, or just a facsimile thereof," (p.145)

JohnofJapan ""Have you won anyone to Christ lately? If so, are you teaching them to be a good Christian?

 

Apparently you don't say he.

Since they, them, their have been used for more than half a millennium as third person pronouns you aren't being old-fashioned to use he.

 

Yeah, that's awkward. I like the NRSV here:
"I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, though they die, will live."

 

I agree with you here. You have brought this particular verse up before and I agreed that it is indeed awkwardly worded.

I like the NET here :
"He entreats God, and God delights in him, and he sees God's face with rejoicing and God restores to him his righteousness."

But here is another clumsy rendering by the LEB :

"He prays to God, then he accepts him, and he sees his face with a shout of joy, and he repays to the human being his righteousness."

Human being? Really? As if we couldn't tell that God isn't the recipient of righteousness.

 

A number of languages on this planet of ours has neuter pronouns.

Languages grow organically. No one controls them, except, perhaps, God, who created them in the first place.

 

Well, I'm no Jerome, but I try. I have used the two quotes from White's book on the BB before. But I came across that JM quote while re-reading his book.

 

"Therefore, before anyone translates the word a different way, they need to ask themselves why the Holy Spirit used that word and not another." (MM 9/23/2015)

 

Anyone who thinks that because they love God and their neighbor (or think they do) they get a free pass on any of the Ten Commandments, he is deceiving himself. (MM June 13, 2018)

 

From the LEB I will give some ultra-short examples

Lev. 22:18 : Anyone...they
Jos. 2:19 : anyone ....they
Jos. 20:3 : Anyone....they
Ez. 13:10 : anyone....they
Jn. 11:57 : anyone ....they