1 Corinthians 10:8 in 8 translations
6 distinct wordings, grouped by what each translation is trying to do. Differences from the King James text are marked below.
Early modern English
Seventeenth-century wording and sentence shape. Familiar, rhythmic, and the version most quotations you have heard are taken from.
These 2 editions word this verse identically.
Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.
1611 / 1769 · Public domain · The Authorised Version, revised to the 1769 Blayney text. Includes the Apocrypha as printed in 1611.
Literal, word-for-word
Follows Hebrew and Greek word order and grammar closely, even where the English becomes stiff. Useful for seeing what the underlying sentence is doing.
Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed fornication, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
neither may we commit whoredom, as certain of them did commit whoredom, and there fell in one day twenty-three thousand;
1898 · Public domain · The most extreme word-for-word rendering here, keeping Hebrew and Greek tense and word order at the cost of natural English.
Modern English
Contemporary vocabulary and punctuation, aiming for the sentence a present-day reader would write while staying close to the source.
Let us not commit sexual immorality, as some of them committed, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell.
2000s · Public domain · A modern-English update of the ASV. Reads close to contemporary speech while staying in the literal tradition. Includes the Apocrypha.
These 2 editions word this verse identically.
Nor let us act immorally, as some of them acted, with the result that twenty-three thousand of them fell dead in a single day.
in progress · Public domain (CC0) · A modern open-licensed translation, still being completed. Some Old Testament books are not yet available.
Simplified English
Built from a deliberately small vocabulary so the sense stays reachable for new readers and non-native speakers. Trades nuance for clarity.
Again, let us not give way to the desires of the flesh, as some of them did, of whom twenty-three thousand came to their end in one day.
1949 · Public domain · Written with roughly a thousand basic English words plus a small Bible vocabulary. The plainest reading available here.
What changes between the King James and modern wording
The modern rendering is printed below with every word that differs from the King James text marked, so the actual divergence is visible rather than left for you to spot.
let us not commit sexual immorality, as some of them committed, and in one day twenty-three thousand. fell.
Word-for-word swaps
- fornication→sexual
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.