Passage

Acts 8.32-35

Book: Acts · NASB95

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"30. And Philip ran to him, and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? 31. And he said, How can I, except some one shall guide me? And he besought Philip to come up and sit with him."

"32. Now the passage of the Scripture which he was reading was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; And as a lamb before his shearer is dumb, So he openeth not his mouth: 33. In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: His generation who shall declare? For his life is taken from the earth. 34. And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other? 35. And Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture, preached unto him Jesus."

"36. And as they went on the way, they came unto a certain water; and the eunuch saith, Behold, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?" (Acts 8:30-37, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"30. Philip ran to him, and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31. He said, “How can I, unless someone explains it to me?” He begged Philip to come up and sit with him."

"32. Now the passage of the Scripture which he was reading was this, “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter. As a lamb before his shearer is silent, so he doesn’t open his mouth. 33. In his humiliation, his judgment was taken away. Who will declare His generation? For his life is taken from the earth.” 34. The eunuch answered Philip, “Who is the prophet talking about? About himself, or about someone else?” 35. Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture, preached to him about Jesus."

"36. As they went on the way, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Behold, here is water. What is keeping me from being baptized?”" (Acts 8:30-37, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"30. And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? 31. And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him."

"32. The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth: 33. In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth. 34. And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man? 35. Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus."

"36. And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? 37. And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." (Acts 8:30-37, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"30. and Philip having run near, heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, 'Dost thou then know what thou dost read?' 31. and he said, 'Why, how am I able, if some one may not guide me?' he called Philip also, having come up, to sit with him."

"32. And the contents of the Writing that he was reading was this: 'As a sheep unto slaughter he was led, and as a lamb before his shearer dumb, so he doth not open his mouth; 33. in his humiliation his judgment was taken away, and his generation, who shall declare? because taken from the earth is his life.' 34. And the eunuch answering Philip said, 'I pray thee, about whom doth the prophet say this? about himself, or about some other one?' 35. and Philip having opened his mouth, and having begun from this Writing, proclaimed good news to him, Jesus."

"36. And as they were going on the way, they came upon a certain water, and the eunuch said, 'Lo, water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?' 37. [And Philip said, 'If thou dost believe out of all the heart, it is lawful;' and he answering said, 'I believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God;']" (Acts 8:30-37, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: TBD
Audience: TBD
Location: TBD
Time period: TBD

Theological reading

Patristic / early-church-father exegesis, to be added.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

TBD
TBD
TBD
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Quoted in

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.