Romans 9:5 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.
Whose the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.
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.
whose are the fathers, and of whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
whose [are] the fathers; and of whom, as according to flesh, [is] the Christ, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
whose are the fathers, and of whom is the Christ, according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed to the ages. Amen.
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.
of whom are the fathers, and from whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God, blessed forever. Amen.
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.
They are descended from the Patriarchs; and, as far as his human nature was concerned, from them came the Christ – he who is supreme over all things, God for ever blessed. Amen.
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.
Whose are the fathers, and of whom came Christ in the flesh, who is over all, God, to whom be blessing for ever. So be it.
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.
of whom are the fathers, and from whom is Christ as concerning the flesh who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.
Word-for-word swaps
- Whose→of
- of→from
- ever→forever
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.