What are victuals in the Bible?
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Like all living languages, English changes over time, with some words falling out of common use and others entering it. The word victuals is an example, as it’s rarely used in Modern English. Victuals refers to food or provisions—two of the terms modern Bible translations use instead of victuals.
Some of the first English Bibles include the word victuals because translations largely reflect the vocabulary of their era. For example, it’s found in John Wycliffe’s fourteenth-century translation, the first complete Bible published in English. The word also appears in the sixteenth-century Geneva Bible. Furthermore, it occurs multiple times in the most historically influential English translation, the King James Version (KJV). In the KJV, victual is found five times, and victuals appears 17 times. The Old Testament contains 20 of the 22 occurrences of the words. In the New Testament, it occurs once in the Gospel of Matthew and once in the Gospel of Luke.
Depending on the context, victuals may describe meat, grain, or sustenance in general, making “food” an accurate contemporary translation. The other common word replacing victuals in modern Bibles is provisions. Related to the word provide, provisions technically emphasizes someone supplying sustenance; however, it’s often used simply as a synonym for food.
Most modern Bible translators aim to offer readers translations that reflect present-day language norms to maximize clarity and understanding. For instance, the KJV says that when the Israelites fled Egypt they hadn’t “prepared for themselves any victual” (Exodus 12:39). The NIV uses modern terms, saying that they didn’t “have time to prepare food for themselves.” Similarly, the ESV and NASB both say, “Nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves.”
Understanding the most common words the KJV translates as “victuals” offers further insight. In the Old Testament, the most common word translated as “victual” comes from the Hebrew word tsedah. This word is the basis for the English term seder, as in Passover Seder, the annual meal that commemorates God’s deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt.
In the New Testament, victuals appears once in the Gospel of Matthew: “And when it was evening, his disciples came to him, saying, This is a desert place, and the time is now past; send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves victuals” (Matthew 14:15, KJV). The Greek word translated as “victuals” in this verse is bromata, meaning “food.” English gets the term bromatology—the study of food and nutrition—from this Greek word.
The other time victuals appears in the New Testament is in the Gospel of Luke’s parallel passage: “And when the day began to wear away, then came the twelve, and said unto him, Send the multitude away, that they may go into the towns and country round about, and lodge, and get victuals: for we are here in a desert place” (Luke 9:12, KJV). The Greek word translated as “victuals” in this verse comes from episitismos, meaning “provisions” or “supplies.”
The English word victual comes from the Latin word victualia, a term derived from vivere, meaning “to live.” Old French adopted this Latin term as vitaille or victaille, which is how it’s spelled in Middle English and how it appears in early English Bibles, like the Wycliffe translation. After Middle English came Early Modern English—the language used in the KJV. A notable characteristic of Early Modern English was a significant reduction in vowels compared to Middle English. Thus, vitaille eventually became victual.
The aim of most Bible translators is to produce translations that help contemporary readers understand and apply the Bible’s teachings more easily. It was no different for the KJV’s translators. The KJV translation reflects the language of its original readers—Early Modern English—as opposed to previous stages like Old English or Middle English. The KJV used words common to its era instead of outdated words used in earlier stages of English. The modern use of words such as food or provisions instead of victuals is consistent with the history of English Bible translation.
All living languages change over time. Because the objective of most Bible translations isn’t to maintain consistency of vocabulary, some older words, like victuals, may be replaced in favor of ones modern readers better know and understand.
Like all living languages, English changes over time, with some words falling out of common use and others entering it. The word victuals is an example, as it’s rarely used in Modern English. Victuals refers to food or provisions—two of the terms modern Bible translations use instead of victuals. Some of the first English Bibles…
Like all living languages, English changes over time, with some words falling out of common use and others entering it. The word victuals is an example, as it’s rarely used in Modern English. Victuals refers to food or provisions—two of the terms modern Bible translations use instead of victuals. Some of the first English Bibles…