Jude 1:8 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.
Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.
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.
Yet in like manner these also in their dreamings defile the flesh, and set at nought dominion, and rail at dignities.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
Yet in like manner these dreamers also defile [the] flesh, and despise lordship, and speak railingly against dignities.
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 like manner, nevertheless, those dreaming also the flesh indeed do defile, and lordship they put away, and dignities they speak evil of,
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.
Yet in the same way, these also in their dreaming defile the flesh, despise authority, and slander celestial beings.
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.
Yet in the same way these people, too, cherishing vain dreams, pollute our human nature, reject control, and malign the celestial beings.
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 the same way these dreamers make the flesh unclean, having no respect for authorities, and say evil of rulers.
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.
Yet in the same way, these also in their dreaming defile the flesh, despise authority, and slander celestial beings.
Word-for-word swaps
- also→Yet
- dreamers→also
- dominion→authority
- dignities→slander
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.