神を信じる kami o shinjiru Believe in God
神を信じる (kami o shinjiru), I believe in God, is the modern conjugation of an old verb, and it is in print in a Christian primer of 1881, twenty-one years before the dictionary's first citation for that form.
Abstract
神を信じる, kami o shinjiru, I believe in God, is a plain modern sentence: the verb 信じる, which the dictionaries first cite from 1902 as the modern conjugation of 信ず, with God as its object and no subject. It is in print in 1881, twenty-one years before that citation, in a Christian primer on prayer and the forgiveness of sins, and in 100 of the public-domain books the National Diet Library's full-text search reaches. Its sister 神を信ぜよ is the same verb as a command in the old conjugation, and the Bible's.
Overview
The sense. I believe in God. Japanese drops its subject, so the sentence reads I believe in God as naturally as it states anyone's belief; it is a statement, not a command.
The words. 神 kami, God, the word the Japanese New Testament of 1881 uses for the God of the Bible [1]. 信じる shinjiru, to believe, to have faith in, the modern conjugation of 信ず [2][3]. The sentence as brushed reads 神を信じる [4]. Word for word: I believe in God.
The text in English. I believe in God is 神を信じる exactly, and the subject is the English's, not the Japanese's.
The historical record
1881, a primer. 原胤昭's 『耶蘇教易知』, Christianity Made Easy, has the modern conjugation: 總で神を信じる者は, all who believe in God, in a passage on prayer and the forgiveness of sins [5]. It is the oldest of the 100 books the full-text search finds with the sentence, dated 1881 to 1967 [6], and twenty-one years older than the dictionary's first citation for 信じる, of 1902 [3].
1904 to 1912, the modern conjugation in print. In the three books read here the sentence is in argument and in fiction: a Buddhist traveler's book, 唯神を信じると假定しても, even granting that one believes in God [7]; a 1909 translation of Andreyev, 神を信じる者には、神に對する罪, for one who believes in God, a sin against God [8]; a 1912 novel's 眞實神を信じるのか, do you truly believe in God? [9].
One verb, two conjugations. 信ず · 信じる shinzu · shinjiru is one verb in two conjugations: the dictionaries define it as 神仏を信仰する, to have faith in a god or buddha, with a citation from 1110, and give the modern form 信じる from 1902; 大辞泉's third sense, 信仰する, gives the example 「キリスト教を信ずる」 [2][3]. 神を信ぜよ, believe in God, is the old conjugation's imperative and the Bible's, in 278 books the full-text search reaches [10]; 神を信じる, I believe in God, is the new conjugation's plain form, in 100 [6]; and 神を信じよ, the new conjugation's imperative, in 32 [11]. The two sentences are one verb in two registers, and the older register is the Bible's. The old conjugation's imperative is Jesus's at Mark 11:22 in the Japanese New Testament of 1881, イエス答て彼等に曰けるハ神を信ぜよ [1].
What is not a source. Nothing stands behind the sentence but the verb.
A reading
神を信じる is the plainest of sentences: the modern verb, God as its object, and no subject, so that whoever says it is the one who believes. It was in print twenty-one years before the dictionary's first citation for its verb's modern form, in a Christian primer of 1881, beside the Bible's older command.
References
- 『新約全書』, 米国聖書会社, 1881, 馬可傳第十一章, printed p. 129, scan 67. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/992682/1/67
- 「信ずる」, デジタル大辞泉・精選版日本国語大辞典 (the sense of faith first cited from 法華修法一百座聞書抄, 1110), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/信ずる-538004
- 「信じる」, デジタル大辞泉・精選版日本国語大辞典 (初出 社会百面相, 1902), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/信じる-537902
- The design as brushed by Eri Takase, Takase Studios (not yet published).
- 原胤昭, 耶蘇教易知, 十字屋, 1881, printed p. 22, scan 13. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/824028/1/13
- National Diet Library next-generation full-text search on 神を信じる, searched again 26 September 2026: 100 books, dated 1881 to 1967, 87 of them to 1946. https://lab.ndl.go.jp/dl/api/book/search?searchfield=contentonly&keyword=神を信じる
- 河口慧海, 生死自在, 1904, scan 16. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/816688/1/16
- アンドレイエフ著, 上田敏訳, 心, 1909, scan 19. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/896864/1/19
- 江見水蔭, 飛行の女, 1912, scan 65. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/887898/1/65
- National Diet Library next-generation full-text search on 神を信ぜよ, searched again 26 September 2026: 278 books, dated 1881 to 1964, 273 of them to 1946. https://lab.ndl.go.jp/dl/api/book/search?searchfield=contentonly&keyword=神を信ぜよ
- National Diet Library next-generation full-text search on 神を信じよ, searched again 26 September 2026: 32 books, dated 1889 to 1967. https://lab.ndl.go.jp/dl/api/book/search?searchfield=contentonly&keyword=神を信じよ