Pronouns

[jack]

"When John was a woman, [he/she/they] said '...' " Which pronoun do you prefer? (That is, "he" is appropriate for John now, "she" would be appropriate for what John was then, and "they" would specify the ambiguity.)

"The things God or Jesus [was/were] recorded as saying are ..." Which pronoun do you prefer? (That is, do you treat them as two separate people (were)? Or one person (was)? :))

Obviously both are arbitrary, and I think both sufficiently specialised that most people wouldn't mind which you used, I just wondered if anyone had a strong opinion :)

Comments

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

I think at least some people would say that John never *was* a woman,

Oh yes, good point. I should have specified, it's likely that John has a preference, and if so, just follow that, and even if you don't know that, or he doesn't want to dwell on it, he may well have a preference, so avoiding it is generally wise. But in theory... :)

I'd probably use 'they' for the parts of the trinity, but I'm not really informed.

You can probably justify referring to God as plural anyway, if you feel like finding an excuse. (I understand that's a polite form of address in some languages, like royal "we" :))