Luke 6:13 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 when it was day, he called his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles;
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 when it was day, he called his disciples; and he chose from them twelve, whom also he named apostles:
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
And when it was day he called his disciples, and having chosen out twelve from them, whom also he named apostles:
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 when it became day, he called near his disciples, and having chosen from them twelve, whom also he named apostles,
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.
When it was day, he called his disciples, and from them he chose twelve, whom he also named apostles:
2000s · Public domain · A modern-English update of the ASV. Reads close to contemporary speech while staying in the literal tradition. Includes the Apocrypha.
When day came, he summoned his disciples, and chose twelve of them, whom he also named ‘apostles.’
in progress · Public domain (CC0) · A modern open-licensed translation, still being completed. Some Old Testament books are not yet available.
When day came, he summoned his disciples, and chose twelve of them, whom he also named “apostles.”
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 the day came and, turning to his disciples, he made a selection from among them of twelve, to whom he gave the name of Apostles;
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.
when it was day, he called his disciples: and from them he chose twelve, whom he also named apostles;
Word-for-word swaps
- of→from
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.