Luke 4:1 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 Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,
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 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led in the Spirit in the wilderness
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
But Jesus, full of [the] Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness
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 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, turned back from the Jordan, and was brought in the Spirit to the wilderness,
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.
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness
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 returning from the Jordan, full of the Holy Spirit, Jesus was led by the power of the Spirit through the wilderness for forty days, tempted by the devil.
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 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, came back from the Jordan, and was guided by the Spirit in the waste land
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.
Jesus full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,
Word-for-word swaps
- Ghost→Spirit
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.