Mark 3:9 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 he spake to his disciples, that a small ship should wait on him because of the multitude, lest they should throng him.
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 he spake to his disciples, that a little boat should wait on him because of the crowd, lest they should throng him:
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
And he spoke to his disciples, in order that a little ship should wait upon him on account of the crowd, that they might not press upon him.
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 he said to his disciples that a little boat may wait on him, because of the multitude, that they may not press upon him,
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.
He spoke to his disciples that a little boat should stay near him because of the crowd, so that they wouldn’t press on him.
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.
So Jesus told his disciples to keep a small boat close by, so that the crowd would not crush him.
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 he made a request to his disciples to have a little boat ready for him, so that he might not be crushed by the people;
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.
he spoke to his disciples, that a little boat should stay near him because of the crowd, so that they wouldn’t press on him.
Word-for-word swaps
- spake→spoke
- ship→little
- on→stay
- lest→crowd
- throng→wouldn’t
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.