Bible Verses
Translation comparison

Luke 24:7 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.

King James Version
KJV

Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.

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.

American Standard Version
ASV

saying that the Son of man must be delivered up into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.

1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.

Darby Bible
DARBY

saying, The Son of man must be delivered up into the hands of sinners, and be crucified, and rise the third day.

1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.

Young's Literal Translation
YLT

saying--It behoveth the Son of Man to be delivered up to the hands of sinful men, and to be crucified, and the third day to rise again.'

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.

World English Bible
WEB

saying that the Son of Man must be delivered up into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again?”

2000s · Public domain · A modern-English update of the ASV. Reads close to contemporary speech while staying in the literal tradition. Includes the Apocrypha.

Open English Bible (US)
OEB-US

How he said that the Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of wicked men, and be crucified, and rise again on the third day.”

in progress · Public domain (CC0) · A modern open-licensed translation, still being completed. Some Old Testament books are not yet available.

Open English Bible (Commonwealth)
OEB-CW

How he said that the Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of wicked men, and be crucified, and rise again on the third day.’

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.

Bible in Basic English
BBE

The Son of man will be given up into the hands of evil-doers, and be put to death on the cross, and on the third day he will come back to life.

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.

Saying, that The Son of man must be delivered up into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.

The verses either side

King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.

6He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee,
7Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.
8And they remembered his words,