The following paragraphs are taken from the article
"English Versions" by Sir Frederic G. Kenyon in the Dictionary of the
Bible edited by James Hastings, and published by Charles Scribner's
Sons of New York in 1909.
The Geneva Bible (1557-1560)
Geneva was the place at which the next link in the
chain was to be forged. Already famous, through the work of Beza, as a
center of Biblical scholorship, it became the rallying place of the more
advanced members of the Protestant party in exile, and under the strong
rule of Calvin it was identified with Puritanism in its most rigid form.
Puritanism, in fact, was here consolidated into a living and active
principle, and demonstrated its stength as a motive power in the
religious and social life of Europe. It was by a relative of Calvin, and
under his own patronage, that the work of improving the English
translation of the Bible was once more taken in hand. This was William
Whittingham, a Fellow of All Souls' College, Oxford, and subsequently
dean of Durham, who in 1557 published the New Testament at Geneva in a
small octavo volume, the handiest form in which the English Scriptures
had yet been given to the world. In two other respects also this marked
an epoch in the history of the English Bible. It was the first version
to be printed in roman type, and the first in which the division of the
text into numbered verses (originally made by Robert Stephanus for his
Greaco-Latin Bible of 1551) was introduced. A preface was contributed by
Calvin himself. The translator claims to have made constant use of the
original Greek and of translations in other tongues, and he added a full
marginal commentary. If the matter had ended there, as the work of a
single scholar on one part of the Bible, it would probably have left
little mark; but it was at once made the basis of a revised version of
both Testaments by a group of Puritan scholars. The details of the work
are not recorded, but the principal workers, apart from Whittingham
himself, appear to have been Thomas Sampson, formerly dean of Chichester,
and afterwards dean of Christ Church, and A. Gilby, of Christ's College,
Cambridge. A version of the Psalter was issued in 1559 [the only two
extant copies of it belong to the Earl of Ellesmere and Mr. Aldis
Wright], and in 1560 the complete Bible was given to the world, with the
imprint of Rowland Hall, at Geneva. The Psalter in this was the same as
that of 1559; but the New Testament had been largely revised since 1557.
The book was a moderate-sized quarto, and contained a dedication to
Elizabeth, an address to the brethren at home, the books of the Old
Testament (including Apocrypha) and New Testament in the same order as
in the Great Bible and our modern Bibles, copious marginal notes (those
to the New Testament taken from Whittingham with some additions), and an
apparatus of maps and woodcuts. In type and verse-division it followed
the example of Whittingham's New Testament.
The Genevan revisers took the Great Bible as their
basis in the Old Testament, and Matthew's Bible (i.e. Tyndale) in the
New Testament. For the former they had the assistance of the Latin Bible
of Leo Juda (1544), in addition to Pagninus (1527), and they were in
consultation with the scholars (including Calvin and Beza) who were then
engaged at Geneva in a similar work of revision of the French Bible. In
the New Testament their principal guide was Beza, whose reputation stood
highest among all the Biblical scholars of the age. The result was a
version which completely distanced its predecessors in scholarship,
while in style and vocabulary it worthily carried on the great tradition
established by Tyndale. Its success was as decisive as it was well
deserved; and in one respect it met a want which none of its
predecessors (except perhaps Tyndale's) had attempted to meet.
Coverdale's, Matthew's, and the Great Bible were all large folios,
suitable for use in church, but unsuited both in size and in price for
private possession and domestic study. The Geneva Bible, on the
contrary, was moderate in both respects, and achieved instant and
long-enduring popularity as the Bible for personal use. For a full
century it continued to be the Bible of the people, and it was upon this
version, and not upon that of King James, that the Bible knowledge of
the Puritans of the Civil War was built up. Its notes furnished them
with a full commentary on the sacred text, predominantly horatory or
monitory in character, but Calvinistic in general tone, and occasionally
definitely polemical. Over 160 editions of it are said to have been
issued, but the only one which requires separate notice is a revision of
the New Testament by Laurence Thomson in 1576, which carried still
further the principle of deference to Beza; this revised New Testament
was successful, and was frequently bound up with the Genevan Old
Testament in place of the edition of 1560.
Frederic G. Kenyon
|
 he
Geneva Bible is a critical, yet almost completely forgotten part of the
Protestant Reformation. Driven out of England by the persecutions of
Bloody Mary, several future leaders of the Reformation came to Geneva to
create a pure and accurate translation of the Holy Writ. Concerned about
the influence that the Catholic Church had on the existing
 translations
of the Bible from the Latin, these men turned to the original Hebrew and
Greek texts to produce the Geneva Bible. This made the Geneva Bible the
first complete Bible to be translated into English from the original
Hebrew and Greek texts.
The creation of the Geneva Bible was a substantial undertaking. Its
authors spent over two years, working diligently day and night by
candlelight, to finish the translation and the commentaries. The entire
project was funded by the exiled English congregation in Geneva, making
the translation a work supported by the people and not by an
authoritarian church or monarch.
All the marginal commentaries were finished by 1599, making the 1599
edition of the Geneva Bible t he
most complete study aide for Biblical scholars and students. This editon
does contain the Apocrypha. The Apocrypha’s notes are minimal or absent
in other editions. Additional highlights of this edition include maps of
the Exodus route and Joshua’s distribution of land, a name and subject
index, and Psalms sung by the English congregation in Geneva.
The greatest
distinction of the Geneva Bible, however, is the extensive collection of
marginal notes that it contains. Prominent Reformation leaders such as
John Calvin, John Knox, Miles Coverdale, William Whittingham, Theodore
Beza, and Anthony Gilby wrote the majority of these notes in order to
explain and interpret the scriptures. The notes comprise nearly 300,000
words, or nearly one-third the length of the Bible itself, and they are
justifiably considered the most complete source of Protestant religious
thought available.
Owing
to the marginal notes and the superior quality of the translation, the
Geneva Bible became the most widely read and influential English Bible
of the 16th and 17th centuries. It was continually printed from 1560 to
1644 in over 200 different editions. It was the Bible of choice for many
of the greatest writers, thinkers, and historical figures of the
Reformation era. William Shakespeare’s plays and the writings of John
Milton and John Bunyan were clearly influenced by the Geneva Bible.
Oliver Cromwell issued a pamphlet containing excerpts from the Geneva
Bible to his troops during the English Civil War. When the Pilgrims set
sail on the Mayflower they took with them exclusively the Geneva Bible.
 The
marginal notes of the Geneva Bible enraged the Catholic Church, since
the notes deemed the act of confession to men – the Catholic Bishops –
as unjustified by Holy Script. Man should confess to God only; man’s
private life was man’s private life. The notes also infuriated King
James, since they allowed disobedience to tyrannical kings. King James
went so far as to make ownership of the Geneva Bible a felony. He then
proceeded to make his own version of the Bible, but without the marginal
notes that had so disturbed him. Consequently, during King James’s
reign, and into the reign of Charles I, the Geneva Bible was gradually
replaced by the King James Bible.
Because of the print size, this facsimile reproduction is
more difficult for some readers. A magnifying glass is often necessary
for the marginal notes. On some of the printing the marginal notes are
not entirely clear. Also, some adjustment is required to get accustomed
to the interchanged I and J, u and v, and f and s in the old print
style. L. L. Brown Publishing is proud to offer the Geneva Bible to
Christians serious about understanding the Bible. A wealth of
information that has been left to us by the Leaders of the Protestant
Reformation is now available after four centuries of being out of print. |
