Textus Receptus Bibles
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
| 11:1 | Then the whole earth was of one language and one speache. |
| 11:2 | And as they went from the East, they found a plaine in the land of Shinar, and there they abode. |
| 11:3 | And they said one to another, Come, let vs make bricke, and burne it in the fire. So they had bricke for stone, and slime had they in steade of morter. |
| 11:4 | Also they said, Goe to, let vs builde vs a citie and a towre, whose top may reache vnto the heauen, that we may get vs a name, lest we be scattered vpon the whole earth. |
| 11:5 | But the Lord came downe, to see the citie and towre, which the sonnes of men builded. |
| 11:6 | And the Lord said, Beholde, the people is one, and they all haue one language, and this they begin to doe, neither can they now be stopped from whatsoeuer they haue imagined to do. |
| 11:7 | Come on, let vs goe downe, and there confound their language, that euery one perceiue not anothers speache. |
| 11:8 | So ye Lord scattered them from thence vpon all the earth, and they left off to build the citie. |
| 11:9 | Therefore the name of it was called Babel, because the Lord did there confounde the language of all the earth: from thence then did the Lord scatter them vpon all the earth. |
| 11:10 | These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundreth yeere olde, and begate Arpachshad two yeere after the flood. |
| 11:11 | And Shem liued, after he begate Arpachshad, fiue hundreth yeeres, and begate sonnes and daughters. |
| 11:12 | Also Arpachshad liued fiue and thirtie yeeres, and begate Shelah. |
| 11:13 | And Arpachshad liued, after he begate Shelah, foure hundreth and three yeeres, and begate sonnes and daughters. |
| 11:14 | And Shelah liued thirtie yeeres, and begat Eber. |
| 11:15 | So Shelah liued, after he begat Eber, foure hundreth and three yeeres, and begat sonnes and daughters. |
| 11:16 | Likewise Eber liued foure and thirtie yeres, and begate Peleg. |
| 11:17 | So Eber liued, after he begate Peleg, foure hundreth and thirtie yeeres, and begate sonnes and daughters |
| 11:18 | And Peleg liued thirtie yeeres, and begate Reu. |
| 11:19 | And Peleg liued, after he begate Reu, two hundreth and nine yeeres, and begate sonnes and daughters. |
| 11:20 | Also Reu liued two and thirtie yeeres, and begate Serug. |
| 11:21 | So Reu liued, after he begate Serug, two hundreth and seuen yeeres, and begate sonnes and daughters. |
| 11:22 | Moreouer Serug liued thirtie yeeres, and begate Nahor. |
| 11:23 | And Serug liued, after he begate Nahor, two hundreth yeeres, and begate sonnes and daughters. |
| 11:24 | And Nahor liued nine and twentie yeeres, and begate Terah. |
| 11:25 | So Nahor liued, after he begate Terah, an hundreth and nineteene yeeres, and begat sonnes and daughters. |
| 11:26 | So Terah liued seuentie yeeres, and begate Abram, Nahor, and Haran. |
| 11:27 | Nowe these are the generations of Terah: Terah begate Abram, Nahor, and Haran: and Haran begate Lot. |
| 11:28 | Then Haran died before Terah his father in the land of his natiuitie, in Vr of the Caldees. |
| 11:29 | So Abram and Nahor tooke them wiues. The name of Abrams wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahors wife Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah. |
| 11:30 | But Sarai was barren, and had no childe. |
| 11:31 | Then Terah tooke Abram his sonne, and Lot the sonne of Haran, his sonnes sonne, and Sarai his daughter in lawe, his sonne Abrams wife: and they departed together from Vr of the Caldees, to goe into the land of Canaan, and they came to Haran, and dwelt there. |
| 11:32 | So the dayes of Terah were two hundreth and fiue yeeres, and Terah died in Haran. |
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.