Luke 9:54 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 his disciples James and John saw they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?
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 his disciples James and John saw [this], they said, Lord, wilt thou that we bid fire to come down from heaven, and consume them?
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
And his disciples James and John seeing [it] said, Lord, wilt thou that we speak [that] fire come down from heaven and consume them, as also Elias did?
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 his disciples James and John having seen, said, `Sir, wilt thou that we may command fire to come down from the heaven, and to consume them, as also Elijah did?'
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 his disciples, James and John, saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from the sky, and destroy them, just as Elijah did?”
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 James and John saw this, they said, “Master, do you wish us to call for fire to come down from the heavens and consume them?”
in progress · Public domain (CC0) · A modern open-licensed translation, still being completed. Some Old Testament books are not yet available.
When James and John saw this, they said, ‘Master, do you wish us to call for fire to come down from the heavens and consume 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 when his disciples, James and John, saw this, they said, Lord, may we send fire from heaven and put an end to 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.
when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from the sky, and destroy them, just as Elijah did?
Word-for-word swaps
- we→do
- heaven→the
- consume→destroy
- even→just
- Elias→Elijah
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.