1 Corinthians 8:2 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.
And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.
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 any man thinketh that he knoweth anything, he knoweth not yet as he ought to know;
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
If any one think he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know [it].
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
and if any one doth think to know anything, he hath not yet known anything according as it behoveth him to know;
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.
But if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he doesn’t yet know as he ought to know.
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 someone thinks that they know anything, they have not yet reached that knowledge which they ought to have reached.
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 anyone seems to himself to have knowledge, so far he has not the right sort of knowledge about anything;
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.
But if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he doesn’t yet know as he ought to know.
Word-for-word swaps
- And→But
- think→anyone
- thing→knows
- nothing→doesn’t
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.