Luke 9:31 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.
Who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem.
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.
who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
who, appearing in glory, spoke of his departure which he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem.
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
who having appeared in glory, spake of his outgoing that he was about to fulfil in Jerusalem,
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.
who appeared in glory, and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.
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.
who appeared in a glorified state, and spoke of his departure, which was destined to take place at Jerusalem.
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.
Who were seen in glory and were talking of his death which was about to take place in Jerusalem.
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.
Who appeared in glory, and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.
Word-for-word swaps
- spake→spoke
- decease→departure
- should→was
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.