Why aren't God's pronouns capitalized in Paradise Lost?

Question

I noticed that God's pronouns are not capitalized in Paradise Lost. Take for example Book III lines 62-3: "on his right/The radiant image of his glory sat..." I would expect a Christian author such as Milton to capitalize "his." I think there are also instances where words like "creator" etc. are lowercase, but I can't find them right now.

Did Milton purposely do this in order to emphasize God's status as just another character? Or was it typical of his time?

Answer 1

Reverential capitalization has never been a constant in English language works, and it's newer than you think. John Milton, born as the final touches were being made on the King James Version, may not have even seen a work that used reverential capitalization — I certainly didn't find anything even after looking at page after page of excepts in Google Books from his lifetime.

This type of capitalization wasn't even that popular during the Heyday of capitalizing Nouns: This book of psalms (1785) shows very consistent capitalization of nouns, but only inconsistently capitalizes reverential pronouns, even within a single verse. (For more information on how we went from capitalizing some nouns, to capitalizing more nouns, to capitalizing all nouns, to going back and deciding maybe we should just capitalize proper nouns, see What were the rules for capitalising nouns in the 17th and 18th centuries?)

For a broader picture, I took BibleHub's Psalm 145:10 translations and created this table, with a few tweaks:

Version	Published	Caps?	Text
Coverdale Bible	1535	no	All thy workes prayse the (o LORDE) and thy sayntes geue thankes vnto the.
Bishops' Bible	1568	no	All thy workes shall confesse it vnto thee O God: and thy saintes shall blesse thee.
Geneva Bible	1587	no	All thy workes prayse thee, O Lord, and thy Saints blesse thee.
Douay-Rheims Bible	1610 (printed 1635)	no	Let al thy works, o Lord, confesse to thee: and let thy Saints blesse thee.
King James Bible	1611	no	All thy workes shall praise thee, O Lord: and thy Saints shal blesse thee.
Douay Rheims Version - Bishop Challoner Revision	1749–1752	no	Let all thy works, O lord, praise thee: and let thy saints bless thee.
Webster's Bible Translation	1833	no	All thy works shall praise thee, O LORD; and thy saints shall bless thee.
English Revised Version	1844	no	All thy works shall give thanks unto thee, O LORD; and thy saints shall bless thee.
Brenton Septuagint Translation	1851	no	Let all thy works, O Lord, give thanks to thee; and let thy saints bless thee.
Young's Literal Translation	1862	yes	Confess Thee O Jehovah, do all Thy works, And Thy saints do bless Thee.
American Standard Version	1901	no	All thy works shall give thanks unto thee, O Jehovah; And thy saints shall bless thee.
JPS Tanakh 1917	1917	yes	All Thy works shall praise Thee, O LORD; And Thy saints shall bless Thee.
Amplified Bible	1965	yes	All Your works shall give thanks to You and praise You, O LORD, And Your godly ones will bless You.
Good News Translation	1966	no	All your creatures, LORD, will praise you, and all your people will give you thanks.
New American Bible	1970	no	All your works give you thanks, LORD and your faithful bless you.
New American Standard Bible	1971	yes	All Your works will give thanks to You, LORD, And Your godly ones will bless You.
New International Version	1973–1978	no	All your works praise you, LORD; your faithful people extol you.
New King James Version	1982	yes	All Your works shall praise You, O LORD, And Your saints shall bless You.
King James Bible (modernized orthography)	1987	no	All thy works shall praise thee, O LORD; and thy saints shall bless thee.
New Revised Standard Version	1990	no	All your works shall give thanks to you, O LORD, and all your faithful shall bless you.
World English Bible	1994–2020	no	All your works will give thanks to you, Yahweh. Your saints will extol you.
NASB 1995	1995	yes	All Your works shall give thanks to You, O LORD, And Your godly ones shall bless You.
GOD'S WORD® Translation	1995	no	Everything that you have made will give thanks to you, O LORD, and your faithful ones will praise you.
New Living Translation	1996	no	All of your works will thank you, LORD, and your faithful followers will praise you.
NASB 1977	1997	yes	All Thy works shall give thanks to Thee, O LORD, And Thy godly ones shall bless Thee.
Holman Christian Standard Bible	1999–2004	no	All You have made will thank You, LORD; the godly will praise You.
Contemporary English Version	2000	no	All creation will thank you, and your loyal people will praise you.
English Standard Version	2001	no	All your works shall give thanks to you, O LORD, and all your saints shall bless you!
Aramaic Bible in Plain English	2007	no	LORD JEHOVAH, your Servants shall give thanks to you and your righteous ones shall praise you!
NET Bible	2009	no	All he has made will give thanks to the LORD. Your loyal followers will praise you.
International Standard Version	2011	no	LORD, everything you have done will praise you, and your holy ones will bless you.
Christian Standard Bible	2017	no	All you have made will thank you, LORD; the faithful will bless you.
New Heart English Bible	2018	no	All your works will give thanks to you, LORD. And your faithful ones will extol you.
Literal Standard Version	2020	yes	O YHWH, all Your works confess You, And Your saints bless You.
Legacy Standard Bible	2021	yes	All Your works, O Yahweh, shall give thanks to You, And Your holy ones shall bless You.
Berean Standard Bible	2022	yes	All You have made will give You thanks, O LORD, and Your saints will bless You.
Majority Standard Bible	2023	yes	All You have made will give You thanks, O LORD, and Your saints will bless You.

Bibles, of course, often use older language, building off the translations that came before them, but having the same passage makes for very easy comparisons.