Revelation 5:3 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 no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon.
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.
And no one in the heaven, or on the earth, or under the earth, was able to open the book, or to look thereon.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
And no one was able in the heaven, or upon the earth, or underneath the earth, to open the book, or to regard it.
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 no one was able in the heaven, nor upon the earth, nor under the earth, to open the scroll, nor to behold it.
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.
No one in heaven above, or on the earth, or under the earth, was able to open the book, or to look in it.
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 no one either in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the book or look within it.
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.
And no one in heaven, or on the earth, or under the earth, was able to get the book open, or to see what was in it.
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.
no one in heaven, above, or on the earth, or under the earth, was able to open the book, or to look in it.
Word-for-word swaps
- man→one
- in→above
- neither→or
- thereon→in
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.