1 Corinthians 12:17 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.
If the whole body an eye, where the hearing? If the whole hearing, where the smelling?
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.
If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
If the whole body [were] an eye, where the hearing? if all hearing, where the smelling?
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
If the whole body were an eye, where the hearing? if the whole hearing, where the smelling?
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.
If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the smelling be?
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.
If all the body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If it were all hearing, where would the sense of smell be?
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.
If all the body was an eye, where would be the hearing? if all was hearing, where would be the smelling?
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.
If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing? be? If the whole were hearing, where would the smelling? be?
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.