Mark 9:7 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 there was a cloud that overshadowed them: and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him.
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 there came a cloud overshadowing them: and there came a voice out of the cloud, This is my beloved Son: hear ye him.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
And there came a cloud overshadowing them, and there came a voice out of the cloud, *This* is my beloved Son: hear him.
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 there came a cloud overshadowing them, and there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, `This is My Son--the Beloved, hear ye him;'
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.
A cloud came, overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”
2000s · Public domain · A modern-English update of the ASV. Reads close to contemporary speech while staying in the literal tradition. Includes the Apocrypha.
Then a cloud came down and enveloped them; and from the cloud there came a voice – “This is my dearly loved son; listen to him.”
in progress · Public domain (CC0) · A modern open-licensed translation, still being completed. Some Old Testament books are not yet available.
Then a cloud came down and enveloped them; and from the cloud there came a voice – ‘This is my dearly loved son; listen to him.’
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 a cloud came over them; and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my dearly loved Son, give ear to him.
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.
a cloud came, overshadowing them: and a voice came out of the cloud, This is my beloved Son: Listen to him.
Word-for-word swaps
- overshadowed→came
- hear→Listen
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.