1 John 4:7 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.
Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
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.
Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is begotten of God, and knoweth God.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
Beloved, let us love one another; because love is of God, and every one that loves has been begotten of God, and knows God.
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
Beloved, may we love one another, because the love is of God, and every one who is loving, of God he hath been begotten, and doth know God;
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.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves has been born of God, and knows God.
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.
Dear friends, let us love one another, because love comes from God and everyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.
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.
My loved ones, let us have love for one another: because love is of God, and everyone who has love is a child of God and has knowledge of God.
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.
Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and everyone who loves has been born of God, and knows God.
Word-for-word swaps
- is→everyone
- knoweth→knows
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.