Matthew 26:7 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.
There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat
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.
there came unto him a woman having an alabaster cruse of exceeding precious ointment, and she poured it upon his head, as he sat at meat.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
a woman, having an alabaster flask of very precious ointment, came to him and poured it out upon his head as he lay at table.
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
there came to him a woman having an alabaster box of ointment, very precious, and she poured on his head as he is reclining (at meat).
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.
a woman came to him having an alabaster jar of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he sat at the table.
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.
a woman came up to him with an alabaster jar of very costly perfume, and poured the perfume on his head as he sat at the table.
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.
There came to him a woman having a bottle of perfume of great price, and she put the perfume on his head when he was seated at table.
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.
a woman came to him having an alabaster jar of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head, as he sat at the table.
Word-for-word swaps
- box→jar
- precious→expensive
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.