1 Corinthians 10:9 in 8 translations
7 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.
Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents.
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 make trial of the Lord, as some of them made trial, and perished by the serpents.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
Neither let us tempt the Christ, as some of them tempted, and perished by serpents.
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 tempt the Christ, as also certain of them did tempt, and by the serpents did perish;
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 test Christ, as some of them tested, and perished by the serpents.
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 try the patience of the Lord too far, as some of them tried it, with the result that they were, one after another, destroyed by the snakes.
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.
And let us not put the Lord to the test, as some of them did, and came to their death by snakes.
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 test Christ, as some of them tested, and perished by the serpents.
Word-for-word swaps
- tempt→not
- tempted→tested
- of→perished
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.