Textus Receptus Bibles
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
| 17:1 | Then there came one of the seuen Angels, which had the seuen vials, and talked with me, saying vnto me, Come: I will shewe thee the damnation of the great whore that sitteth vpon many waters, |
| 17:2 | With whom haue committed fornication the Kings of the earth, and the inhabitants of the earth are drunken with the wine of her fornication. |
| 17:3 | So he caried me away into the wildernesse in the Spirit, and I sawe a woman sit vpon a skarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemie, which had seuen heads, and tenne hornes. |
| 17:4 | And the woman was arayed in purple and skarlet, and gilded with golde, and precious stones, and pearles, and had a cup of gold in her hand, full of abominations, and filthines of her fornication. |
| 17:5 | And in her forehead was a name written, A mysterie, that great Babylon, that mother of whoredomes, and abominations of the earth. |
| 17:6 | And I sawe ye woman drunken with the blood of Saintes, and with the blood of the Martyrs of IESVS: and when I sawe her, I wondred with great marueile. |
| 17:7 | Then the Angel saide vnto me, Wherefore marueilest thou? I will shewe thee the misterie of that woman, and of that beast, that beareth her, which hath seuen heads, and tenne hornes. |
| 17:8 | The beast that thou hast seene, was, and is not, and shall ascend out of the bottomles pit, and shall goe into perdition, and they that dwell on the earth, shall wonder (whose names are not written in the booke of life from the foundation of ye world) when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. |
| 17:9 | Here is the mind that hath wisdome. The seuen heads, are seuen mountaines, whereon the woman sitteth: they are also seuen Kings. |
| 17:10 | Fiue are fallen, and one is, and another is not yet come: and when he commeth, he must continue a short space. |
| 17:11 | And the beast that was, and is not, is euen the eight, and is one of the seuen, and shall goe into destruction. |
| 17:12 | And the tenne hornes which thou sawest, are tenne Kings, which yet haue not receiued a kingdome, but shall receiue power, as Kings at one houre with the beast. |
| 17:13 | These haue one minde, and shall giue their power, and authoritie vnto the beast. |
| 17:14 | These shall fight with the Lambe, and the Lambe shall ouercome them: for he is Lord of Lordes, and King of Kings: and they that are on his side, called, and chosen, and faithfull. |
| 17:15 | And he said vnto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are people, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. |
| 17:16 | And the tenne hornes which thou sawest vpon the beast, are they that shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eate her flesh, and burne her with fire. |
| 17:17 | For God hath put in their heartes to fulfill his will, and to doe with one consent for to giue their kingdome vnto the beast, vntill the wordes of God be fulfilled. |
| 17:18 | And that woman which thou sawest, is that great citie, which reigneth ouer the kings of ye earth. |
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.