1 Timothy 1:19 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.
Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:
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.
holding faith and a good conscience; which some having thrust from them made shipwreck concerning the faith:
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
maintaining faith and a good conscience; which [last] some, having put away, have made shipwreck as to faith;
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
having faith and a good conscience, which certain having thrust away, concerning the faith did make shipwreck,
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.
holding faith and a good conscience; which some having thrust away made a shipwreck concerning the faith;
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.
with faith, and with a clear conscience; and it is because they have thrust this aside, that, as regards the faith, some have wrecked their lives.
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.
Keeping faith, and being conscious of well-doing; for some, by not doing these things, have gone wrong in relation to the faith:
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.
Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having thrust away made a shipwreck: concerning the faith;
Word-for-word swaps
- put→thrust
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.