Matthew 27:34 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.
They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted he would not drink.
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.
they gave him wine to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted it, he would not drink.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
they gave to him to drink vinegar mingled with gall; and having tasted [it], he would not drink.
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
they gave him to drink vinegar mixed with gall, and having tasted, he would not drink.
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.
they gave him sour wine to drink mixed with gall. When he had tasted it, he would not drink.
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.
they gave him some wine to drink which had been mixed with gall; but after tasting it, Jesus refused to drink it.
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.
They gave him wine mixed with bitter drink: and after tasting it, he took no more.
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.
They gave him sour wine to drink mixed with gall: when he had tasted it, he would not drink.
Word-for-word swaps
- vinegar→sour
- mingled→mixed
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.