Acts 22:2 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 when they heard that he spake in the Hebrew tongue to them, they kept the more silence: and he saith,)
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 when they heard that he spake unto them in the Hebrew language, they were the more quiet: and he saith,
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
And hearing that he addressed them in the Hebrew tongue, they kept the more quiet; and he says,
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 they having heard that in the Hebrew dialect he was speaking to them, gave the more silence, and he saith, --
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.
When they heard that he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, they were even more quiet. He said,
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.
When they heard that he was speaking to them in Hebrew, they were still more quiet; and Paul went on:
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, hearing him talking in the Hebrew language, they became the more quiet, and he said,
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.
when they heard that he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, they were even more quiet. he said,
Word-for-word swaps
- spake→spoke
- them→language
- the→were
- and→quiet
- saith→said
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.