James 4:1 in 8 translations
8 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.
From whence wars and fightings among you? not hence, of your lusts that war in your members?
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.
Whence [come] wars and whence [come] fightings among you? [come they] not hence, [even] of your pleasures that war in your members?
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
Whence [come] wars and whence fightings among you? [Is it] not thence, from your pleasures, which war in your members?
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
Whence are wars and fightings among you? not thence--out of your passions, that are as soldiers in your members?
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.
Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members?
2000s · Public domain · A modern-English update of the ASV. Reads close to contemporary speech while staying in the literal tradition. Includes the Apocrypha.
What is the cause of the fighting and quarreling that goes on among you? Isn’t it to be found in the desires which are always at war within you?
in progress · Public domain (CC0) · A modern open-licensed translation, still being completed. Some Old Testament books are not yet available.
What is the cause of the fighting and quarrelling that goes on among you? Isn’t it to be found in the desires which are always at war within you?
in progress · Public domain (CC0) · The Commonwealth spelling edition of the Open English Bible. Identical wording to the US edition apart from spelling.
Simplified English
Built from a deliberately small vocabulary so the sense stays reachable for new readers and non-native speakers. Trades nuance for clarity.
What is the cause of wars and fighting among you? is it not in your desires which are at war in your bodies?
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.
Where do wars and fightings among you? come from? Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members?
Word-for-word swaps
- whence→Where
- of→come
- lusts→pleasures
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.