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William Whittingham
Article from the Encyclopedia Britannica
11th edition (1911)
WHITTINGHAM, WILLIAM (c. 1524-1579), English scholar, who
belonged to a Lancashire family, was born at Chester. Educated at
Brasenose College, Oxford, he became a fellow of All Souls' College and
a senior student of Christ Church, and later he visited several
universities in France and Germany. A strong Protestant, he returned to
England in 1553, but soon found it expedient to travel again to France.
In 1554 he was a leading member of the band of English Protestant exiles
who were assembled at Frankfort-on-the-Main, and in the controversies
which took place between them concerning the form of service to be
adopted, Whittingham strongly supported the Calvinistic views propounded
by John Knox. These opinions, however, did not prevail, and soon the
Scottish reformer and his follower were found at Geneva; in 1559
Whittingham succeeded Knox as minister of the English congregation in
that city, and here he did his most noteworthy work, that of making an
English translation of the Bible. He was probably responsible for the
English translation of the New Testament which appeared in 1557, and he
had certainly a large share in the translation of both the Old and the
New Testaments which is called the Genevan Bible. This was printed at
Geneva in 1560 and enjoyed a remarkable popularity (see BIBLE, ENGLISH).
He also made a metrical translation of some of the Psalms. Having
returned to England in 1560, Whittingham went to France in the train of
Francis Russell, 2nd earl of Bedford, and a little later he acted as
minister of the English garrison at Havre, being in this place during
its siege by the French in 1562. In the following year he was made dean
of Durham. He attended well to the duties of his office, but his liking
for puritan customs made certain prelates and others look upon him with
suspicion, and in 1576 or 1577 a commission was appointed to inquire
into his conduct. This had no result, and another commission was
appointed in 1578, one charge against Whittingham being that he had not
been duly ordained. The case was still under consideration when the dean
died on the 10th of June 1579.
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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. |
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