Matthew 8:33 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 they that kept them fled, and went their ways into the city, and told every thing, and what was befallen to the possessed of the devils.
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 they that fed them fled, and went away into the city, and told everything, and what was befallen to them that were possessed with demons.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
But they that fed them fled, and went away into the city and related everything, and what had happened as to those possessed by demons.
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 those feeding did flee, and, having gone to the city, they declared all, and the matter of the demoniacs.
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.
Those who fed them fled, and went away into the city, and told everything, including what happened to those who were possessed with demons.
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.
At this the men who tended them ran away and went to the town, carrying the news of all that had occurred, and of what had happened to the possessed men.
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 their keepers went in flight to the town and gave an account of everything, and of the men who had the evil spirits.
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.
Those who fed them fled, and went away into the city, and told everything, including what happened to those who were possessed with demons.
Word-for-word swaps
- kept→Those
- ways→away
- and→everything
- befallen→happened
- the→those
- devils→with
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.