Luke 23:2 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 they began to accuse him, saying, We found this perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying that he himself is Christ a King.
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 they began to accuse him, saying, We found this man perverting our nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ a king.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
And they began to accuse him, saying, We have found this [man] perverting our nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying that he himself is Christ, a king.
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 began to accuse him, saying, `This one we found perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying himself to be Christ a king.'
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.
They began to accuse him, saying, “We found this man perverting the nation, forbidding paying taxes to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king.”
2000s · Public domain · A modern-English update of the ASV. Reads close to contemporary speech while staying in the literal tradition. Includes the Apocrypha.
And they began to accuse him, “This is a man whom we found misleading our people, preventing them from paying taxes to the Emperor, and giving out that he himself is ‘Christ, a king.’”
in progress · Public domain (CC0) · A modern open-licensed translation, still being completed. Some Old Testament books are not yet available.
And they began to accuse him, ‘This is a man whom we found misleading our people, preventing them from paying taxes to the Emperor, and giving out that he himself is “Christ, a king.”’
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 they made statements against him, saying, This man has to our knowledge been teaching our nation to do wrong, and not to make payment of taxes to Caesar, even saying that he himself is Christ, a king.
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.
they began to accuse him, saying, We found this man perverting the nation, forbidding paying taxes to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ a King.
Word-for-word swaps
- tribute→paying
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.