Mark 7:15 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.
There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.
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.
there is nothing from without the man, that going into him can defile him; but the things which proceed out of the man are those that defile the man.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
There is nothing from outside a man entering into him which can defile him; but the things which go out from him, those it is which defile the man.
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
there is nothing from without the man entering into him that is able to defile him, but the things coming out from him, those are the things defiling the man.
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.
There is nothing from outside of the man, that going into him can defile him; but the things which proceed out of the man are those that defile the man.
2000s · Public domain · A modern-English update of the ASV. Reads close to contemporary speech while staying in the literal tradition. Includes the Apocrypha.
There is nothing external to a person, which by going into them can defile them; but the things that come out of a person are the things that defile them.”
in progress · Public domain (CC0) · A modern open-licensed translation, still being completed. Some Old Testament books are not yet available.
There is nothing external to a person, which by going into them can defile them; but the things that come out of a person are the things that defile them.’
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.
There is nothing outside the man which, going into him, is able to make him unclean: but the things which come out of the man are those which make the man unclean.
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.
There is nothing from outside of the man, that going into him can defile him: but the things which proceed out of the man are those that defile the man.
Word-for-word swaps
- a→outside
- entering→going
- come→proceed
- those→the
- they→those
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.