Luke 23:51 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.
(The same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them;) of Arimathaea, a city of the Jews: who also himself waited for the kingdom of God.
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 had not consented to their counsel and deed), [a man] of Arimathaea, a city of the Jews, who was looking for the kingdom of God:
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
(this [man] had not assented to their counsel and deed), of Arimathaea, a city of the Jews, who also waited, [himself also,] for the kingdom of God
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 was not consenting to their counsel and deed--from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who also himself was expecting the reign of God,
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 had not consented to their counsel and deed), from Arimathaea, a city of the Jews, who was also waiting for God’s Kingdom:
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.
(This man had not assented to the decision and action of the Council.) He belonged to Ramah, a town in Judea, and lived in expectation of the kingdom of God.
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.
(He had not given his approval to their decision or their acts), of Arimathaea, a town of the Jews, who was waiting for the kingdom of God:
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 had not consented to their counsel and deed from Arimathaea, a city of the Jews: who was also waiting for God’s kingdom
Word-for-word swaps
- same→he
- the→their
- of→from
- waited→waiting
- the→God’s
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.