Luke 5:29 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 Levi made him a great feast in his own house: and there was a great company of publicans and of others that sat down with them.
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 Levi made him a great feast in his house: and there was a great multitude of publicans and of others that were sitting at meat with them.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
And Levi made a great entertainment for him in his house, and there was a great crowd of tax-gatherers and others who were at table with them.
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 Levi made a great entertainment to him in his house, and there was a great multitude of tax-gatherers and others who were with them reclining (at meat),
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.
Levi made a great feast for him in his house. There was a great crowd of tax collectors and others who were reclining with them.
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 Levi gave a great entertainment at his house, in honor of Jesus; and a large number of tax-gatherers and others were having dinner with them.
in progress · Public domain (CC0) · A modern open-licensed translation, still being completed. Some Old Testament books are not yet available.
And Levi gave a great entertainment at his house, in honour of Jesus; and a large number of tax-gatherers and others were having dinner with them.
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 Levi made a great feast for him in his house: and a great number of tax-farmers and others were seated at table with them.
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.
Levi made a great feast for him in his house: there was a great crowd of tax collectors and others who were reclining with them.
Word-for-word swaps
- company→crowd
- publicans→tax
- down→who
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.