Luke 13:35 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.
Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until come when ye shall say, Blessed he that cometh in the name of the Lord.
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.
Behold, your house is left unto you [desolate]: and I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
Behold, your house is left unto you; and I say unto you, that ye shall not see me until it come that ye say, Blessed [is] he that comes in the name of [the] Lord.
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
`Lo, your house is being left to you desolate, and verily I say to you--ye may not see me, till it may come, when ye may say, Blessed is he who is coming in the name of the Lord.'
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.
Behold, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
2000s · Public domain · A modern-English update of the ASV. Reads close to contemporary speech while staying in the literal tradition. Includes the Apocrypha.
Verily your house is left to you desolate! And never, I tell you, will you see me, until you say – ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
in progress · Public domain (CC0) · A modern open-licensed translation, still being completed. Some Old Testament books are not yet available.
Verily your house is left to you desolate! And never, I tell you, will you see me, until you say – “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”’
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.
Now see, your house is waste, and I say to you, You will not see me again till you say, A blessing on him who comes in the name of the Lord.
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.
Behold, your house is left to you desolate: I tell you, you will not see me, until you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
Word-for-word swaps
- unto→to
- unto→tell
- shall→you
- cometh→who
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.