Mark 4:31 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.
like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth:
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.
It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown upon the earth, though it be less than all the seeds that are upon the earth,
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
As to a grain of mustard [seed], which, when it is sown upon the earth, is less than all seeds which are upon the earth,
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
As a grain of mustard, which, whenever it may be sown on the earth, is less than any of the seeds that are on the earth;
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.
It’s like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, though it is less than all the seeds that are on the earth,
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.
By what can we illustrate it? Perhaps by the growth of a mustard seed. This seed, when sown in the ground, though it is smaller than all other seeds,
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.
It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is put in the earth, is smaller than all the seeds on the earth,
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.
It’s like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, though it is less than all the seeds that are on the earth:
Word-for-word swaps
- in→are
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.