Acts 10:48 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 he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days.
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 he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
And he commanded them to be baptised in the name of the Lord. Then they begged him to stay some days.
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
he commanded them also to be baptized in the name of the Lord; then they besought him to remain certain days.
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.
He commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay some days.
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 he directed that they should be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ; after which they asked him to stay there a few days longer.
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 he gave orders for them to have baptism in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they kept him with them for some days.
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.
he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay some days.
Word-for-word swaps
- Lord→Jesus
- certain→stay
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.