I’m just recently starting to see “G-D” in print in contexts in which it obviously is meant to stand in for “God”.
Before seeing ads/ posters for the movie Trembling Before G-d, I had never see “God” written this way (“G-d”) before. Since first seeing it in connection with this film, however, I have seen it in other contexts that are not connected to the film, always used in such a way as to lead me to believe that there may be some long history/tradition behind it.
It’s a jewish thing. One shouldn’t write gods name on something which could be destroyed (as paper by fire) and has also crossed over to electronic media etc.
Somone will be in to answer properly, but that is the gist of it.
I’m not religious in any way but I read an explanation for this somewhere or another. I think the reason the name God is not written out completely is so the sacred name cannot be defaced by a heathen or inadvertently.
Does anyone else think that non-Jews are encountering “G-d” in the media more often than used to be the case? I mean, really, I went from having never seen it to seeing it pretty frequently anymore. Have I only recently started paying attention?
In Judaism, God’s name is not “God”, so your statment falls flat. “YHVH” is a fairly close transliteration to how the Name is written in Hebrew, however, the actual pronunciation of that name is now unknown. Things like “Yahweh” are mere guesses. The whole “G-d” thing has come about because it was the practice to say “god” instead of the Name when reading Torah, since the Name is not to be spoken by us impure mortals.
However, in the modern day, there are both poor ignorant sots who think that “God” is His Name and other people who have decided that “God” has been used as a substitute for the name for so long that it must now be treated as if it were the Name.
I think the reason non-Jews are seeing it more often is because the practice is catching on with Christians. I’ve seen it written that way on more than one Christian message board.
There have been several threads on this topic. While “God” is not the name of the Almighty, it is the word in English that most frequently identifies the Almighty and it is, therefore, shown the same respect. (It is hard to research because vB will not search on three-character strings, but a search for Adonai will turn up most of them.)
I had never seen the ‘G-d’ usage before joining these boards.
I am neither Christian nor Jewish and don’t tend to travel in religious circles, so it’s quite possible that ‘G-d’ is in common usage in some communities in Canada and I’d never seen it. It’s definitely not mainstram in Southern Ontario though.
I first started noticing the “G-d” spelling a few years ago, when some of my students would spell it that way in their papers. At first I thought it was odd, and then I learned it was a Jewish convention.
How old that convention is, I’m not sure–I’ve only been teaching and grading papers for a little more than 10 years now, and most of that time has been in the Deep South, where the Jewish population is fairly small. I suppose if I were teaching in an area with a larger Jewish community, I would have noticed it earlier.
Similarly, I only recently learned that “B.C.E.” and “C.E.” (“Before Common Era” and “Common Era” respectively) were the accepted Jewish terms for the Christian “B.C.” and “A.D.” I’ve noticed now, however, that “B.C.E.” and “C.E.” are becoming the preferred dating terms among most historical scholars, Jewish or otherwise.
The “G-d” spelling still strikes me as a bit odd, as I understand it isn’t the word “God” that is verboten–it’s the unpronounceable YHWH (or YHVH) as Dogface points out. But if it’s considered a standard convention, then I don’t see any problem with it.
Though I still chuckle when I see students spell it that way when they’re referring to pagan gods (for example, Ares as the Greek “g-d of war”).
On the same note - why do these idiots capitalise the first letter of “his” & “he”. It’s just about the language people ! You only capitalise PROPER NOUNS !
“These idiots” (read: Christians like me) do it out of respect, pure and simple. He, Thee, Thou, You, etc. all capitalized in reverence to God. But no, we’re not afraid of getting struck down if we forget to do it.
Must be nice to have such a cushy and fluffy little life to be so upset over that. Capitalization of pronouns when referring to the Divine has very long credence and IS correct English.
The logical problem is, of course, that if you use “G-d” as a replacement for “God” and everyone knows what it means, then, really, “G-d” becomes “the word in English that most frequently identifies the Almighty” – so how do you show “G-d” the same respect? Words, after all, are arbitrary symbols for concepts. Writing adds a further level of arbitrariness. So long as a “marking” and a concept are connected in the writer’s and the reader’s mind, that’s all the connection that language requires. Thus “G-d” is no less the true name of god than “God” or “Adonai” or “YHWH” or “Yahweh” or “Yahoowahoo” etc.
