Mark 9:3 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 his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them.
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 his garments became glistering, exceeding white, so as no fuller on earth can whiten them.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
and his garments became shining, exceeding white [as snow], such as fuller on earth could not whiten [them].
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 his garments became glittering, white exceedingly, as snow, so as a fuller upon the earth is not able to whiten them.
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.
His clothing became glistening, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them.
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.
and his clothes became whiter than any launderer in the whole world could bleach them.
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 his clothing became shining, very white, as no cleaner on earth would make it.
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.
his clothing became glistening, exceedingly white like snow; such as no launderer on earth can whiten them.
Word-for-word swaps
- raiment→clothing
- exceeding→glistening
- as→like
- so→such
- fuller→launderer
- white→whiten
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.