Mark 8:3 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.
And if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way: for divers of them came from far.
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 if I send them away fasting to their home, they will faint on the way; and some of them are come from far.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
and if I should dismiss them to their home fasting, they will faint on the way; for some of them are come from far.
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 if I shall let them away fasting to their home, they will faint in the way, for certain of them are come from far.'
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.
If I send them away fasting to their home, they will faint on the way, for some of them have come a long way.”
2000s · Public domain · A modern-English update of the ASV. Reads close to contemporary speech while staying in the literal tradition. Includes the Apocrypha.
and if I send them away to their homes hungry, they will break down on the way; and some of them have come a long distance.”
in progress · Public domain (CC0) · A modern open-licensed translation, still being completed. Some Old Testament books are not yet available.
and if I send them away to their homes hungry, they will break down on the way; and some of them have come a long distance.’
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.
If I send them away to their houses with no food, they will be overcome by weariness on the way; and some of them have come from far.
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.
if I send them away fasting to their home, they will faint on the way: for some of them have come a long way.”
Word-for-word swaps
- houses→home
- by→on
- divers→some
- far→have
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.