Luke 12:18 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 he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.
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 he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my grain and my goods.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
And he said, This will I do: I will take away my granaries and build greater, and there I will lay up all my produce and my good things;
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 he said, This I will do, I will take down my storehouses, and greater ones I will build, and I will gather together there all my products and my good things,
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 said, ‘This is what I will do. I will pull down my barns, and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.
2000s · Public domain · A modern-English update of the ASV. Reads close to contemporary speech while staying in the literal tradition. Includes the Apocrypha.
This is what I will do,’ he said; ‘I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and store all my grain and my goods in them;
in progress · Public domain (CC0) · A modern open-licensed translation, still being completed. Some Old Testament books are not yet available.
This is what I will do,” he said; “I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and store all my grain and my goods in them;
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 he said, This I will do: I will take down my store-houses and make greater ones, and there I will put all my grain and my goods.
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 said, This is what I will do: I will pull down my barns, and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.
Word-for-word swaps
- will→is
- greater→bigger
- bestow→will
- fruits→grain
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.