Luke 8:3 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 Joanna the wife of Chuza Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto him of their substance.
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 Joanna the wife of Chuzas Herod`s steward, and Susanna, and many others, who ministered unto them of their substance.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
and Joanna, wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others, who ministered to him of their substance.
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 Joanna wife of Chuza, steward of Herod, and Susanna, and many others, who were ministering to him from their substance.
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.
and Joanna, the wife of Chuzas, Herod’s steward; Susanna; and many others; who served them from their possessions.
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.
and Joanna (the wife of Herod’s steward, Chuza), and Susannah, and many others – all of whom provided for Jesus and his apostles out of their own resources.
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 Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's chief house-servant, and Susanna and a number of others, who gave him of their wealth for his needs.
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.
And Joanna the wife of Chuzas, Herod’s steward, Susanna, and many others, who served them from their possessions.
Word-for-word swaps
- Chuza→Chuzas
- of→who
- substance→possessions
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.