Matthew 26:15 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 said What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.
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 said, What are ye willing to give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they weighed unto him thirty pieces of silver.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
and said, What are ye willing to give me, and *I* will deliver him up to you? And they appointed to him thirty pieces of silver.
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
`What are ye willing to give me, and I will deliver him up to you?' and they weighed out to him thirty silverlings,
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 said, “What are you willing to give me, that I should deliver him to you?” They weighed out for him thirty pieces of silver.
2000s · Public domain · A modern-English update of the ASV. Reads close to contemporary speech while staying in the literal tradition. Includes the Apocrypha.
and said “What are you willing to give me, if I betray Jesus to you?” The Priests weighed him out thirty pieces of silver as payment.
in progress · Public domain (CC0) · A modern open-licensed translation, still being completed. Some Old Testament books are not yet available.
and said ‘What are you willing to give me, if I betray Jesus to you?’ The Priests weighed him out thirty pieces of silver as payment.
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.
What will you give me, if I give him up to you? And the price was fixed at thirty bits of silver.
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 said What are you willing to give me, that I should deliver him to you? they weighed out for him thirty pieces of silver.
Word-for-word swaps
- ye→are
- and→that
- will→should
- unto→to
- him→weighed
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.