Romans 4:1 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.
What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?
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.
What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, hath found according to the flesh?
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
What shall we say then that Abraham our father according to flesh has found?
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
What, then, shall we say Abraham our father, to have found, according to flesh?
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.
What then will we say that Abraham, our forefather, has found according to the flesh?
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.
What then, it may be asked, are we to say about Abraham, the ancestor of our nation?
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.
What, then, may we say that Abraham, our father after the flesh, has got?
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.
What then will we say that Abraham our forefather, has found according to the flesh,
Word-for-word swaps
- shall→then
- pertaining→forefather
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.