Luke 1:32 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.
He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:
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.
He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
*He* shall be great, and shall be called Son of [the] Highest; and [the] Lord God shall give him the throne of David his father;
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
he shall be great, and Son of the Highest he shall be called, and the Lord God shall give him the throne of David his father,
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.
He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David,
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 child will be great and will be called ‘Son of the Most High,’ and the Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David,
in progress · Public domain (CC0) · A modern open-licensed translation, still being completed. Some Old Testament books are not yet available.
The child will be great and will be called “Son of the Most High,” and the Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David,
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.
He will be great, and will be named the Son of the Most High: and the Lord God will give him the kingdom of David, his father:
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.
He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High. the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David:
Word-for-word swaps
- shall→will
- and→Most
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.