Mark 6:38 in 8 translations
8 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.
He saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? go and see. And when they knew, they say, Five, and two fishes.
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 saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? go [and] see. And when they knew, they say, Five, and two fishes.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
And he says to them, How many loaves have ye? Go [and] see. And when they knew they say, Five, and two fishes.
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 saith to them, `How many loaves have ye? go and see;' and having known, they say, `Five, and two fishes.'
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 said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go see.” When they knew, they said, “Five, and two fish.”
2000s · Public domain · A modern-English update of the ASV. Reads close to contemporary speech while staying in the literal tradition. Includes the Apocrypha.
“How many loaves have you?” he asked, “Go, and see.” When they had found out, they told him, “Five, and two fish.”
in progress · Public domain (CC0) · A modern open-licensed translation, still being completed. Some Old Testament books are not yet available.
‘How many loaves have you?’ he asked, ‘Go, and see.’ When they had found out, they told him, ‘Five, and two fish.’
in progress · Public domain (CC0) · The Commonwealth spelling edition of the Open English Bible. Identical wording to the US edition apart from spelling.
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 said to them, How much bread have you? go and see. And when they had seen, they said, Five cakes of bread and two fishes.
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 said to them, How many loaves do you have go see. when they knew, they said, Five, and two fish.”
Word-for-word swaps
- unto→said
- say→said
- fishes→fish
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.