Philippians 2:6 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.
Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with 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.
who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped,
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
who, subsisting in the form of God, did not esteem it an object of rapine to be on an equality with 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.
who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal to 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.
who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped,
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.
Though the divine nature was his from the beginning, yet he did not look on equality with God as above all things to be clung to,
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.
To whom, though himself in the form of God, it did not seem that to take for oneself was to be like 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.
Who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God: a thing to be grasped,
Word-for-word swaps
- being→existing
- equal→didn’t
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.