McGrath, however, rejects this view, for two reasons. The first reason is that in the KJV, "these same forms of address are used indiscriminately for God, Satan, and human beings, reflecting the usage of the early sixteenth century" (p. 268). Why was the KJV using forms of address common in the sixteenth century when the KJV itself was published a century later, in the seventeenth century? McGrath provides an explanation. He points out that the translators of the KJV were instructed not to "depart in any significant extent from the text of the Bishops' Bible of 1568" (p. 269). The translators of the Bishops' Bible were in turn instructed to generally follow the text of the Great Bible of 1539. Moreover, the text of the Great Bible was derived in part from William Tyndale's 1525 translation of the New Testament. Consequently, due to this inherent conservatism on the part of Bible translators over the years, the KJV, "continued to reproduce the English of nearly three generations earlier" (p. 271), despite changes in the English language that had occurred in the interim.
McGrath's second reason for rejecting the view that we should address God using the forms thou, thee, and thy is that "the use of these forms of address was, if anything, derogatory, implying superiority on the part of the user over the one thus addressed" (pp. 268-269). Why the use of these archaic forms should be considered derogatory is due to the evolution of the English language. As McGrath explains, in early Middle English (the form of English used during the medieval period), thou was used to address a single person, while ye was used to address more than one person. Thee was used when a single person was the object of a sentence, while thy was the possessive form for a single person. Their plural counterparts were you and your. However, this began to change after the Norman Conquest (1066). After the Normans conquered England, their native language, French, began to influence English. In French, the plural second person pronoun vous is used not only to address two or more people, but also as a polite form to address a single person. As a result, English speakers began using the plural forms ye, you, and your to show respect toward a single individual. Therefore, as McGrath notes, "by the sixteenth century, the use of the singular form to address a single individual had virtually ceased in English, except in the specific case of family and inferiors" (p. 266). Thus, to refer to God as Thou could have been interpreted as disrespectful, rather than respectful.
Nevertheless, due to the tremendous prestige that the KJV acquired and its retention of these archaic forms, many English-speaking Christians over the years came to believe that addressing God as Thou or Thee was more respectful than employing You. And, in a way, it could be argued that these archaic pronouns did acquire a certain formal, "religious" flavor, as evidenced by their frequent use in the lyrics of hymns in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries. However, modern hymn-writers have largely abandoned their use, which given the general trend toward greater informality in worship in many denominations, is not too surprising. Nevertheless, since many of those hymns written in previous centuries remain popular with congregations, it is easy to predict that we will still be hearing Thou, Thee and Thy in church for many years to come!
Image of Exeter Cathedral in Britain from Wikimedia Commons