October 1560, 1576, & 1599 A.D. Geneva Bibles
October 1560, 1576, & 1599 A.D. Geneva Bibles
Nicole,
Roger. “The Original Geneva Bible.” Ligonier Ministries. 1 Apr 1995. http://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/the-original-geneva-bible/. Accessed 24 Sept 2014.
The Original Geneva Bible
by
Roger Nicole
Christianity
is the religion of the Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ, and of the written Word,
the Bible. Wherever Christianity has gone, it has developed translations of
Scripture as a necessity. The promise of Pentecost, where people of various origin
heard of “the wonders of God in their own tongues” (Acts 2:11), has been fulfilled and
continues to be increasingly fulfilled in the process of Bible translation. The
whole Bible, or portions thereof, is now available in print in more than
2,000 languages.
In the
British Isles, turbulent times accompanied the work of translating Scripture,
but the first written translation of the whole Bible was made under the
influence of John Wycliffe (c. 1330–1384). Even though it had to be copied by
hand, and in spite of a prohibition against English translations, there are
still some two hundred manuscripts of it extant.
The first
published text was William Tyndale’s translation of the New Testament (1526),
based on the Greek and Hebrew texts, in Worms, Germany. He had completed the
translation of the Pentateuch, Jonah, and Joshua-2 Chronicles before being
martyred in 1536.
Miles
Coverdale, encouraged by Archbishop Cramner and Secretary Thomas Cromwell,
undertook to translate the whole Bible from the Vulgate (Latin) with the help
of certain other translators in Latin or German and of Tyndale’s own version.
This was published in 1535 in Germany. In 1537 it was republished in Southwark,
the first complete English Bible to be printed in England.
When Mary
Tudor ascended the British throne (1553), she did her utmost to restore the
Roman Catholic faith. Little did she realize that her anti-Protestant stance
would indirectly foster the production of the most important 16th-century
Bible, the “Geneva Bible,” precipitated by the exile of a number of the
influential Protestant leaders to Geneva. Notable among these were John Knox
and William Whittingham. After establishing an English church in 1555, the refugees
agreed that the most significant work they could do was to prepare and publish
a new English translation of the whole Bible made in such a way that it would
have a maximum accessibility to the common people of Britain. Whittingham was
an excellent scholar in Greek, and Anthony Gilby and Christopher Goodman in
Hebrew. Furthermore, there were at that time in Geneva a number of gifted
scholars and printers.
The English
refugees made ample use of these resources, and Whittingham and his associates
labored day and night to perform the task of preparing an English translation
of the whole Bible. Earlier editions of the Bible had marginal notes, but the
Geneva Bible accommodated them in a much greater proportion. Written in a
Puritanic spirit, there was language that angered the royal family and some of
the bishops of the Anglican Church who sought to impede the distribution and
use of this Bible.
On June 10,
1557, the New Testament appeared as follows:
“The New Testament of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Conferred diligently with the Greke, and best approved
translations. With the arguments, aswel before the chapters, as for every Boke & Epistle, also diversities of readings, and most
proffitable annotations of all harde places: wherunto is added a copious Table.
At Geneva Printed By Conrad Badius. M.D.LVII.”
Mary Tudor
died on November 17, 1558. Her successor, Queen Elizabeth, was favorable to the
reformation initiated by her father, Henry VIII. Many of those who were
exiles under Mary hastened to return to the British Isles. Whittingham,
however, and some of his associates remained in Geneva until 1560 to finish the
publication of their edition of the Bible.
Inasmuch as
the translation of the book of Psalms was completed, the Geneva group decided
to publish it separately and to dedicate this work to Elizabeth. They prefixed
a flowery letter to her, declaring that her accession to the throne was a
special blessing from God. They established a parallel between her and King
David in that both were enthroned after years of life-threatening persecutions.
The queen was admonished to cling to the Lord and to His Word even as David
did. An epistle to the reader was placed at the end.
After the
publication of the Psalms in 1559, Whittingham and his associates labored
diligently to bring to completion this momentous work. When one holds in his
hands the large volume, one cannot fail to be impressed by the gigantic task
involved in translating, annotating, printing, proofreading, and binding this
book. The marginal annotations, written in exceedingly small type, are very
unevenly distributed—relatively scanty in the Pentateuch and the historical
books of the Old Testament, and very full in Job, Psalms, and the Prophets, as
well as some Epistles and Revelation.
The New
Testament was also published separately in 1560. The desire to make God’s Word
available to English-speaking people is apparent. Those who could not afford to
buy the whole Bible might at least purchase the New Testament.
Between 1560
and 1644, there were more than 140 editions of the Geneva Bible. In 1599 alone
ten editions appeared. The first Geneva Bible to be printed in Britain was
published in London by Christopher Berkes in 1575. The first printing in
Scotland appeared in 1575.
The Genevan
exiles labored with great earnestness for five years in order to give to their
country a Bible that would reflect the best scholarship and yet be accessible
even to those with moderate financial means. Challenged by others in Geneva who
were publishing Bibles or New Testaments in Latin (1556, 1567), Italian (1555),
French (22 editions in the 1550s), Spanish (1556, 1557), and Greek (1551) and
by the success of the German Bibles (Luther 1534, Zwingli 1527–29), they worked
untiringly to produce the Geneva Bible in 1560. Thereafter, for more than 80
years, it dominated the field, surpassing greatly the official Bishops’ Bible
and giving great incentive to King James I. The Genevan marginal notes did not
sit well with him, and so he provided the funds and assembled the scholars for
preparation of the magnificent edition in 1611 of a New Authorized Version,
known as the King James Version. Even so it took many years for the latter to
catch up with the production of the Geneva Bible, and it must be noted that at
many places the 1611 translation was influenced by the work of the exiles. The
Geneva Bible was the Bible of Shakespeare; it was the Bible of the Puritans; it
was the Bible carried on their ships by the Jamestown settlers (1607) and the
Plymouth Pilgrims (1620). Harvard University treasures the copy that Governor
Bradford brought with him on the Mayflower.
Nothing else that the exiles could have done would possibly approximate the
boon to Britain and the influence in the world which the Genevan Bible turned
out to be.
And now a new Geneva Bible is to appear,
ironically enough with the text of the New
King James Bible, but once again with notes intended to emphasize
the Reformed character of Holy Scripture. What its influence may be no one yet
knows, but those who produced it are confident that “their labor will not be in
vain in the Lord” (1 Cor. 15:58).
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