American Individualism and the Plural "You"

American Individualism and the Plural “You”

Do you know what a “second-person, personal pronoun” is? Don’t worry. This post will not be a grammar lesson. I’ve tried three times to write one, but I’ve bored myself so much that I gave up. Anyway, the word “you” is just such a pronoun. We use this word everyday, and in proper English it can be used either in a singular or a plural number. (Such as when some says, “You preachers talk too much.” or “You Christians are all the same.”) However, in the southern and southwestern parts of the US, we developed “ya’ll” to replace the plural form. 

Well, I lied about the grammar lesson it seems, but that will be the end of it…for the most part. “Ya’ll” has become so handy that my iPhone will even correct for it when I send a text. (It adds the apostrophe and everything.) I’ve met people from other parts of the US that employ their own versions of “ya’ll.” It’s to correct for a deficiency in English where we can’t tell when we hear someone speak whether they mean one person or a group of people. It doesn’t come up so much in the political arena, mostly because politicians want to be inclusive and use “we” instead. However, these colloquial terms exist, and they are hard to get out of our everyday speech. (Trust me! I’ve been trying not to say “ya’ll” since I’ve moved to DC…and I tend to fail more than succeed.)

But none of these terms are considered “good grammar,” and so when authors write for publication, or when Biblical scholars translate a text, we are left with the good, old fashioned, “you.” Not a problem, though. It was meant to serve as both a singular and plural word. We can tell the difference, right?

I don’t think we do a good job of that, though. The US is a country of individuals, not a place of great community.  Because we are trying to be whatever we want, or taking care of ourselves, because no one else will. Individualism is a part of our American DNA. American individualism is talked about so much that there is almost no need to talk about it. It’s that part of us that says that our struggles and afflictions are really our own. They are unique to who we are.

But what if individualism did more than just inform the way we see the world? What if it informed the way we read our Bibles? Like I talked about earlier, it’s not proper grammar to say “ya’ll” in a formal setting. Biblical scholars would never use such a common turn of phrase in formal writing. When we read our English-language Bibles, we are reading a proper style that is far from what we normally speak and hear. For most of my teen years, the pastors who ministered to me were apt to let “ya’ll” into their sermons, though, and that just goes to fuel my curiosity. 

You see, the writers of the Bible had a way to differentiate between you-singular and you-plural. The original audiences would have heard the difference when the texts were read. Is it different for us? On Sunday morning, or if you read the texts for yourself, do we really know who the writer is talking to? I think we tend to think of the texts as talking to an individual…not a community. We can’t help but understand the texts in terms of our language. Our thoughts are processed through English filters enhanced with our American worship of the individuals.

A good “ya’ll” would probably benefit us when we read the Scriptures. That way when when Jesus, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples,”(John 8:31) it would be more of a conversation in a community instead of a command for me. Maybe the next version of the English Bible should read, “If ya’ll hold to my teaching, ya’ll are really my disciples.”  

Although, if I had done this in seminary...I probably would have done even worse in Greek.