John 19:2 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.
And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put on his head, and they put on him a purple robe,
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.
And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and arrayed him in a purple garment;
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
And the soldiers having plaited a crown of thorns put it on his head, and put a purple robe on him,
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
and the soldiers having plaited a crown of thorns, did place it on his head, and a purple garment they put around him,
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.
The soldiers twisted thorns into a crown, and put it on his head, and dressed him in a purple garment.
2000s · Public domain · A modern-English update of the ASV. Reads close to contemporary speech while staying in the literal tradition. Includes the Apocrypha.
The soldiers made a crown with some thorns and put it on his head and threw a purple robe around him.
in progress · Public domain (CC0) · A modern open-licensed translation, still being completed. Some Old Testament books are not yet available.
The soldiers made a crown with some thorns and put it on his head and threw a purple robe round him.
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.
And the men of the army made a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they put a purple robe on him.
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.
the soldiers twisted thorns into a crown and put it on his head, and dressed him in a purple garment.
Word-for-word swaps
- platted→twisted
- on→dressed
- robe→garment
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.