Featured Bible Reading Comprehension Tests

Four years ago I put together some comparisons of Flesch-Kincaid ratings of Bibles.

I apologize for the length:

The Flesch-Kincaid reading level is based on an algorithm whose inputs are the number of words, number of syllables and number of sentences. Vocabulary, grammar, idioms and other variables are not considered -- or even if the words make no sense.

Mathew 3:16-17

Lexham English Bible (Grade level 10.8) Now after he was baptized, Jesus immediately went up from the water, and behold, the heavens opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove coming upon him. And behold, there was a voice from heaven saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

KJV (Grade level 20.5) And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

KJV revised (I changed the colons to periods; Grade level 6.5) And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water. And, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him. And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

Geneva 1599 (Grade level 6.3)
And Jesus when he was baptized, came straight out of the water. And lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and John saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and [lighting] upon him.
And lo, a voice came from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

Holman (Grade level 5.6)
After Jesus was baptized, He went up immediately from the water. The heavens suddenly opened for Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on Him. And there came a voice from heaven:
This is My beloved Son.
I take delight in Him!

ESV (Grade level 21.3) And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

ESV revised (I changed a semicolon to a period; Grade level 10.6) And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him. And behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

ESV revised again (I changed some commas to periods; Grade level 7) And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water. And behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him. And behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

The pledge of allegiance, BTW, is at Grade Level 15.2. And Jabberwocky comes in at 3.2.

Make of it what you will.


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Just for kicks, here is Romans 8:1-13 from the Wyclif Bible (Grade level 8.5)

Therfor now no thing of dampnacioun is to hem that ben in Crist Jhesu, whiche wandren not after the flesch.
For the lawe of the spirit of lijf in Crist Jhesu hath delyuerid me fro the lawe of synne, and of deth. For that that was vnpossible to the lawe, in what thing it was sijk bi flesch, God sente his sone in to the licknesse of fleisch of synne, and of synne dampnede synne in fleisch; that the iustefiyng of the lawe were fulfillid in vs, that goen not aftir the fleisch, but aftir the spirit. For thei that ben aftir the fleisch, saueren tho thingis that ben of the fleisch; but thei that ben after the spirit, feelen tho thingis that ben of the spirit. For the prudence of fleisch is deth; but the prudence of spirit is lijf and pees. For the wisdom of the fleisch is enemye to God; for it is not suget to the lawe of God, for nether it may. And thei that ben in fleisch, moun not plese to God. But ȝe ben not in fleisch, but in spirit; if netheles the spirit of God dwellith in ȝou. But if ony hath not the spirit of Crist, this is not his. For if Crist is in ȝou, the bodi is deed for synne, but the spirit lyueth for iustefiyng. And if the spirit of hym that reiside Jhesu Crist fro deth dwellith in ȝou, he that reiside Jhesu Crist fro deth, shal quykene also ȝoure deedli bodies, for the spirit of hym that dwellith in ȝou. Therfor, britheren, we ben dettouris, not to the flesch, that we lyuen aftir the flesch. For if ȝe lyuen aftir the fleisch, ȝe schulen die; but if ȝe bi the spirit sleen the dedis of the fleisch, ȝe schulen lyue.

The KJV score is 8.2, practically the same as the Wyclif.

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I wish you had given the GL of the NASB in your list.

If I recall it is about 5th to 6th grade, but I am probably very wrong.


That passage in Romans is 11.8. As a point of comparison, the ESV is 7.7.

You can look up the passage in both versions and I daresay you will not find one significantly easier to read than the other. The difference? How the versions use colons, commas and periods. The ESV uses shorter sentences, so it gets a lower score. The language, aside from punctuation, is very similar.

Look at Romans 8:3-4.

NASB: For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

That comes in at Grade Level 23.8.

Here's the ESV:

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

That's Grade Level 11.5

Both are formal English and, truthfully, the ESV is easier to read, but not on a factor of two.

For kicks again, I made a minor change to the NASB:

For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Guess what? The simple change of punctuation (replacing a colon with a period) lowered the score to 11.6, virtually identical to the ESV. (Although I like the ESV better stylistically.)

 

A couple of things:

1. When I was a young'un, it was expected that you would memorize Scripture. There were contests, even awards. And what you memorized was the KJV, whose cadences do help in the memorization process. They also enhance dramatic reading.

2. The goal of memorization was, well, memorization, not necessarily context and meaning. I remember a vacation Bible school session based on "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." The activity included little shoes made of construction paper and no understanding of what "study" meant. (Just to make it clear, I am not against memorization, even today in the KJV; all of the Bible that is in my memory is from the KJV, and I am glad to have it.)

 

This is not just confined to assemblies, IMO. I am not sure when it became devalued in the classroom, but my anecdotal experience tells me that such reading is less common than it once was.

I am not trying to romanticize a bygone era. Asking students to read aloud is often a crapshoot. It's nice to try to include everyone in the lesson by reading aloud, but it often does not edify everyone and ends up embarrassing some and putting others to sleep. I can honestly say that our readings of Julius Caesar and Romeo and Juliet when I was in junior high and high school edified no one.I'm sure it could have been done better, but it wasn't.