Hebrews 11:35 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.
Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:
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.
Women received their dead by a resurrection: and others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
Women received their dead again by resurrection; and others were tortured, not having accepted deliverance, that they might get a better resurrection;
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
Women received by a rising again their dead, and others were tortured, not accepting the redemption, that a better rising again they might receive,
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.
Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.
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.
Women received back their dead raised to life. Some were tortured on the wheel, and refused release in order that they might rise to a better life.
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.
Women had their dead given back to them living; others let themselves be cruelly attacked, having no desire to go free, so that they might have a better life to come;
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.
Women received their dead by resurrection. others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:
Word-for-word swaps
- and→by
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.