Acts 2:47 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.
Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.
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.
praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to them day by day those that were saved.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
praising God, and having favour with all the people; and the Lord added [to the assembly] daily those that were to be saved.
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
praising God, and having favour with all the people, and the Lord was adding those being saved every day to the assembly.
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.
praising God, and having favor with all the people. The Lord added to the assembly day by day those who were being saved.
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 the Lord daily added to their company those who were in the path of salvation.
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.
Giving praise to God, and having the approval of all the people; and every day the number of those who had salvation was increased by the Lord.
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.
Praising God, and having favor with all the people. the Lord added to the assembly day by day those who were being saved.
Word-for-word swaps
- favour→favor
- be→assembly
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.