Acts 8:18 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 Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money,
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 when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles` hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money,
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
But Simon, having seen that by the laying on of the hands of the apostles the [Holy] Spirit was given, offered them money,
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 Simon, having beheld that through the laying on of the hands of the apostles, the Holy Spirit is given, brought before them money,
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 when Simon saw that the Holy Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money,
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 Simon saw that it was through the placing of the apostles’ hands on them that the Spirit was given, he brought them a sum of money and said,
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 when Simon saw that the Holy Spirit was given through the touch of the Apostles' hands, he made them an offering of money, saying,
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 when Simon saw that the Holy Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands he offered them money,
Word-for-word swaps
- And→Now
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.