John 11:55 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 the Jews’ passover was nigh at hand: and many went out of the country up to Jerusalem before the passover, to purify themselves.
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 the passover of the Jews was at hand: and many went up to Jerusalem out of the country before the passover, to purify themselves.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
But the passover of the Jews was near, and many went up to Jerusalem out of the country before the passover, that they might purify themselves.
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 the passover of the Jews was nigh, and many went up to Jerusalem out of the country before the passover, that they might purify themselves;
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 the Passover of the Jews was at hand. Many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover, to purify themselves.
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.
But the Jewish Festival of the Passover was near; and many people had gone up from the country to Jerusalem, for their purification, before the Festival began.
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 the Passover of the Jews was near, and numbers of people went up from the country to Jerusalem to make themselves clean before the Passover.
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 the passover of the Jews was at hand: many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the passover, to purify themselves.
Word-for-word swaps
- And→Now
- of→up
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.