The Geneva Bible

The Bible of the Protestant Reformation

Bible. English. Geneva. 2007.

ISBN: 9781598562125
Format: Hardback
Publisher:Hendrickson Publishers Inc
Edition: illustrated edition

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Johannes Gutenberg's invention of the moveable type printing press in the mid-Fifteenth Century made possible the explosion of new Bible translations in the Sixteenth Century. Among others William Tyndale, Miles Coverdale and Thomas Matthew sought to cast the scriptures in the common peoples' language so that, as Tyndale put it, "the boy that driveth the plough should know more of [them]" than the educated man.

But translating the Word of God into the vernacular was a risky occupation…

Queen Mary's (1553-1558) persecution of her Protestant subjects caused many to flee to the continent to avoid imprisonment or execution. Geneva, Switzerland soon became a center for Protestant biblical scholarship. It was there that a group of the movement's leading lights gathered to undertake a fresh translation of the scriptures into English, beginning in 1556. Published in 1560, the "Geneva Bible's" popularity kept it in print until 1644 - long after the advent of the Authorized Version (a.k.a. "King James Version"). It was an English Bible that met the needs of both clergy and laity. Perhaps the Geneva Bible's greatest contribution was its commentary, which under girded the emerging practice of sermonizing and helped foster scripture literacy.

The Bible of the Protestant Reformation

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