1 John 3:16 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.
Hereby perceive we the love because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down lives for the brethren.
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.
Hereby know we love, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
Hereby we have known love, because *he* has laid down his life for us; and *we* ought for the brethren to lay down [our] lives.
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
in this we have known the love, because he for us his life did lay down, and we ought for the brethren the lives to lay down;
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.
By this we know love, because he laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
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.
This is how we know that love is: Christ gave his life for us. So we should lay down our own lives for each other.
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.
In this we see what love is, because he gave his life for us; and it is right for us to give our lives for the brothers.
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.
By this we know love because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
Word-for-word swaps
- perceive→By
- the→know
- brethren→brothers
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.