Matthew 2:12 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 being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.
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 being warned [of God] in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
And being divinely instructed in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.
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 having been divinely warned in a dream not to turn back unto Herod, through another way they withdrew to their own region.
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.
Being warned in a dream that they shouldn’t return to Herod, they went back to their own country another way.
2000s · Public domain · A modern-English update of the ASV. Reads close to contemporary speech while staying in the literal tradition. Includes the Apocrypha.
But afterward, having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their own country by another road.
in progress · Public domain (CC0) · A modern open-licensed translation, still being completed. Some Old Testament books are not yet available.
But afterwards, having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their own country by another road.
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 it was made clear to them by God in a dream that they were not to go back to Herod; so they went into their country by another way.
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.
being warned in a dream that they shouldn’t return to Herod, they went back to their own country another way.
Word-for-word swaps
- not→shouldn’t
- into→went
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.