Acts 7:11 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.
Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and Chanaan, and great affliction: and our fathers found no sustenance.
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.
Now there came a famine over all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction: and our fathers found no sustenance.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
But a famine came upon all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and great distress, and our fathers found no food.
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 there came a dearth upon all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and great tribulation, and our fathers were not finding sustenance,
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.
Now a famine came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction. Our fathers found no food.
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.
Then a famine spread over the whole of Egypt and Canaan, causing great distress, and our ancestors could find no food.
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.
Now there was no food to be had in all Egypt and Canaan, and there was great trouble: and our fathers were not able to get food.
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.
Now a famine came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction: our fathers found no food.
Word-for-word swaps
- dearth→famine
- Chanaan→Canaan
- sustenance→food
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.