Talk:The powers that be

Wouldn't the singular be "The power that is"?

History of (they) be?
Why "be" rather than "are"? "Be" doesn't seem to be subjunctive here. What is the history of the indicative use of a "be" form from Old English through to Tyndale? German has "ich bin" and "du bist" in contrast with English "I am" and "thou art", and of course there are regional English forms like, "Where be that blackbird now? I know where 'e be." Does Tyndale's use of it reflect his own regional dialect? What is the extent of its use in other literature after his time? Are there any other literary uses of it contemporary with the KJV? Koro Neil (talk) 23:41, 31 July 2010 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 2 one external links on The powers that be (phrase). Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20130927164124/http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10553/10553-h/10553-h.htm to https://www.gutenberg.org/files/10553/10553-h/10553-h.htm
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20141218203840/http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10/10-h/10-h.htm to https://www.gutenberg.org/files/10/10-h/10-h.htm

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Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 16:01, 9 January 2016 (UTC)

Requested move 28 November 2019

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion. 

The result of the move request was: moved. I seemed to have messed up using the pageswap tool, feel free to trout me and/or fix any ensuing damage that might have occurred. (non-admin closure) qedk (t 桜 c) 21:35, 8 December 2019 (UTC)

– Per WP:DIFFCAPS / the only usage that is lowercase. ZXCVBNM (TALK) 16:46, 28 November 2019 (UTC)
 * The powers that be (phrase) → The powers that be
 * The powers that be → The Powers That Be
 * Oppose - unlike the situations for when the only usage has a specific capitalization and editors argue that a reader writing that specific way can only mean they are searching for that title, the same cannot be said for all lowercase. That's just how people search. This helps no one other than you for some reason (and it's a bit annoying that I'll need to copy/paste my same argument to all nominations now). --Gonnym (talk) 23:44, 28 November 2019 (UTC)
 * Support per nom. But even if we disregard DIFFCAPS, it's the WP:PRIMARYTOPIC based on |The_Powers_That_Be_(TV_series)|The_powers_that_be|The_Powers_That_Be_(book)|The_Powers_That_Be_(Stargate_SG-1)|The_Powers_That_Be_(Jackie_Chan_Adventures)|The_Powers_that_Be_(band) pageviews and significance. Station1 (talk) 10:56, 29 November 2019 (UTC)
 * Inclined to support this one, not per nom but per PRIMARYTOPIC.  — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼  17:08, 29 November 2019 (UTC)
 * Support per Station1, even if people are using lower case it would clearly be primary by PT#2 and have the edge in PT#1.  Crouch, Swale  ( talk ) 09:21, 1 December 2019 (UTC)
 * Support per Station1. Hyperbolick (talk) 20:53, 7 December 2019 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.