Titus 1:12 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.
One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.
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.
One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, idle gluttons.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
One of themselves, a prophet of their own, has said, Cretans are always liars, evil wild beasts, lazy gluttons.
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
A certain one of them, a prophet of their own, said--`Cretans! always liars, evil beasts, lazy bellies!'
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.
One of them, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and idle gluttons.”
2000s · Public domain · A modern-English update of the ASV. Reads close to contemporary speech while staying in the literal tradition. Includes the Apocrypha.
It was a Cretan – one of their own prophets – who said: ‘Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons.’ This statement is true.
in progress · Public domain (CC0) · A modern open-licensed translation, still being completed. Some Old Testament books are not yet available.
It was a Cretan – one of their own prophets – who said: “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons.” This statement is true.
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.
One of their prophets has said, The men of Crete are ever false, evil beasts, lovers of food, hating work.
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.
One of them, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and idle gluttons.”
Word-for-word swaps
- even→them
- Cretians→Cretans
- alway→always
- bellies→and
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.