Matthew 13:8 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.
But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.
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 others fell upon the good ground, and yielded fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
and others fell upon the good ground, and produced fruit, one a hundred, one sixty, and one thirty.
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 others fell upon the good ground, and were giving fruit, some indeed a hundredfold, and some sixty, and some thirty.
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.
Others fell on good soil, and yielded fruit: some one hundred times as much, some sixty, and some thirty.
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.
Some, however, fell on good soil, and yielded a return, sometimes one hundred, sometimes sixty, sometimes thirty fold.
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 some, falling on good earth, gave fruit, some a hundred, some sixty, some thirty times as much.
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.
Others fell on good soil, and yielded fruit, some one hundred times as much, some sixty, and some thirty.
Word-for-word swaps
- other→Others
- into→on
- ground→soil
- forth→yielded
- hundredfold→one
- sixtyfold→sixty
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.