Textus Receptus Bibles
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
| 55:1 | Ho, euery one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and ye that haue no siluer, come, bye and eate: come, I say, bye wine and milke without siluer and without money. |
| 55:2 | Wherefore doe ye lay out siluer and not for bread? and your labour without being satisfied? hearken diligently vnto me, and eate that which is good, and let your soule delite in fatnes. |
| 55:3 | Encline your eares, and come vnto me: heare, and your soule shall liue, and I will make an euerlasting couenant with you, euen the sure mercies of Dauid. |
| 55:4 | Beholde, I gaue him for a witnes to the people, for a prince and a master vnto the people. |
| 55:5 | Beholde, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and a nation that knew not thee, shall runne vnto thee, because of the Lord thy God, and the holy one of Israel: for hee hath glorified thee. |
| 55:6 | Seeke ye the Lord while he may be found: call ye vpon him while he is neere. |
| 55:7 | Let the wicked forsake his wayes, and the vnrighteous his owne imaginations, and returne vnto the Lord, and he wil haue mercy vpon him: and to our God, for hee is very ready to forgiue. |
| 55:8 | For my thoughtes are not your thoughts, neither are your wayes my wayes, sayth the Lord. |
| 55:9 | For as ye heauens are higher then the earth, so are my wayes higher then your wayes, and my thoughtes aboue your thoughts. |
| 55:10 | Surely as the raine commeth downe and the snow from heauen, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth and maketh it to bring forth and bud, that it may giue seede to the sower, and bread vnto him that eateth, |
| 55:11 | So shall my worde be, that goeth out of my mouth: it shall not returne vnto me voyde, but it shall accomplish that which I will, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. |
| 55:12 | Therefore ye shall go out with ioy, and be led forth with peace: the mountaines and the hilles shall breake foorth before you into ioye, and all the trees of the fielde shall clap their handes. |
| 55:13 | For thornes there shall grow firre trees: for nettles shall growe the myrrhe tree, and it shalbe to the Lord for a name, and for an euerlasting signe that shall not be taken away. |
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
The Geneva Bible is one of the most influential and historically significant translations of the Bible into English, preceding the King James translation by 51 years. It was the primary Bible of 16th century Protestantism and was the Bible used by William Shakespeare, Oliver Cromwell, John Knox, John Donne, and John Bunyan. The language of the Geneva Bible was more forceful and vigorous and because of this, most readers strongly preferred this version at the time.
The Geneva Bible was produced by a group of English scholars who, fleeing from the reign of Queen Mary, had found refuge in Switzerland. During the reign of Queen Mary, no Bibles were printed in England, the English Bible was no longer used in churches and English Bibles already in churches were removed and burned. Mary was determined to return Britain to Roman Catholicism.
The first English Protestant to die during Mary's turbulent reign was John Rogers in 1555, who had been the editor of the Matthews Bible. At this time, hundreds of Protestants left England and headed for Geneva, a city which under the leadership of Calvin, had become the intellectual and spiritual capital of European Protestants.
One of these exiles was William Whittingham, a fellow of Christ Church at Oxford University, who had been a diplomat, a courtier, was much traveled and skilled in many languages including Greek and Hebrew. He eventually succeeded John Knox as the minister of the English congregation in Geneva. Whittingham went on to publish the 1560 Geneva Bible.
This version is significant because, it came with a variety of scriptural study guides and aids, which included verse citations that allow the reader to cross-reference one verse with numerous relevant verses in the rest of the Bible, introductions to each book of the Bible that acted to summarize all of the material that each book would cover, maps, tables, woodcut illustrations, indices, as well as other included features, all of which would eventually lead to the reputation of the Geneva Bible as history's very first study Bible.