Matthew 8:34 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.
And, behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus: and when they saw him, they besought that he would depart out of their coasts.
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 behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus: and when they saw him, they besought [him] that he would depart from their borders.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
And behold, the whole city went out to meet Jesus; and when they saw him, they begged [him] to go away out of their coasts.
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 lo, all the city came forth to meet Jesus, and having seen him, they called on him that he might depart from their borders.
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.
Behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus. When they saw him, they begged that he would depart from their borders.
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.
At the news the whole town went out to meet Jesus, and, when they saw him, they entreated him to go away from their region.
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.
And all the town came out to Jesus; and seeing him they made request that he would go away from their part of the country.
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.
behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus: when they saw him, they begged that he would depart from their borders.
Word-for-word swaps
- besought→begged
- of→from
- coasts→borders
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.