Manuscript variant · documented · Afterlife
What the source reads — 'Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?' — Paul quotes Hosea 13:14, and the earliest Greek reads thanate ('death') in both clauses (so the SBLGNT)
What this version reads — 'O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?' — the received text behind the KJV reads the second word as Hades, not death, harmonizing Paul toward the Greek of Hosea; the KJV then softens Hades to 'grave', the WEB keeps 'Hades', Diodati raises it to 'inferno' (hell)
In the oldest manuscripts Paul mocks one foe, 'death', twice over. The Byzantine and received texts turn the second into 'Hades' — the underworld — drawing the line toward the Septuagint of Hosea it quotes. Then the translators divide on that Hades too: the KJV lowers it to 'grave', the Riveduta and WEB keep 'Hades', Diodati raises it to 'inferno' — hell. One verse holding both a manuscript variant and the whole grave-versus-hell split.
Read this chapter side by side — 1 Corinthians 15:55 →