Acts 5:23 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.
Saying, The prison truly found we shut with all safety, and the keepers standing without before the doors: but when we had opened, we found no man within.
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.
saying, The prison-house we found shut in all safety, and the keepers standing at the doors: but when we had opened, we found no man within.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
saying, We found the prison shut with all security, and the keepers standing at the doors; but when we had opened [them], within we found no one.
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
saying--`The prison indeed we found shut in all safety, and the keepers standing without before the doors, and having opened--within we found no one.'
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.
“We found the prison shut and locked, and the guards standing before the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside!”
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.
while they had found the goal barred securely and the guards posted at the doors, yet, on opening them, they had not found anyone inside.
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.
Saying, The doors of the prison were safely shut, and the keepers were at the doors, but when they were open, there was nobody inside.
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.
“We found The prison shut and locked, and the guards standing before the doors: but when we opened, them, we found no one inside!”
Word-for-word swaps
- Saying→We
- keepers→guards
- within→one
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.