Luke 20:1 in 8 translations
7 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 it came to pass, on one of those days, as he taught the people in the temple, and preached the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes came upon with the elders,
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 it came to pass, on one of the days, as he was teaching the people in the temple, and preaching the gospel, there came upon him the chief priests and the scribes with the elders;
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
And it came to pass on one of the days, as he was teaching the people in the temple, and announcing the glad tidings, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up,
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 it came to pass, on one of those days, as he is teaching the people in the temple, and proclaiming good news, the chief priests and the scribes, with the elders, came upon 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.
On one of those days, as he was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the Good News, the priests and scribes came to him with the elders.
2000s · Public domain · A modern-English update of the ASV. Reads close to contemporary speech while staying in the literal tradition. Includes the Apocrypha.
These 2 editions word this verse identically.
On one of these days, when Jesus was teaching the people in the Temple Courts and telling the good news, the chief priests and the teachers of the Law, joined by the elders, confronted him,
in progress · Public domain (CC0) · A modern open-licensed translation, still being completed. Some Old Testament books are not yet available.
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 it came about on one of those days, when he was teaching the people in the Temple and preaching the good news,
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.
on one of those days, as he was teaching the people in the temple, and preaching the Good News, the priests and scribes came to him with the elders,
Word-for-word swaps
- taught→was
- preached→preaching
- gospel→Good
- upon→to
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.