Acts 13:26 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.
Men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you feareth God, to you is the word of this salvation sent.
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.
Brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and those among you that fear God, to us is the word of this salvation sent forth.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
Brethren, sons of Abraham's race, and those who among you fear God, to you has the word of this salvation been sent:
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
`Men, brethren, sons of the race of Abraham, and those among you fearing God, to you was the word of this salvation sent,
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.
Brothers, children of the stock of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, the word of this salvation is sent out to you.
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.
Brothers and sisters, descendants of Abraham, and all those among you who worship God, it was to us that the message of this salvation was sent.
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.
My brothers, children of the family of Abraham, and those among you who have the fear of God, to us the word of this salvation is sent.
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.
Brothers, children of the stock of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, the word of this salvation is sent. out to you.
Word-for-word swaps
- brethren→Brothers
- whosoever→those
- feareth→who
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.