Textus Receptus Bibles
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
| 48:1 | Againe after this, one sayd to Ioseph, Loe, thy father is sicke: then hee tooke with him his two sonnes, Manasseh and Ephraim. |
| 48:2 | Also one told Iaakob, and said, Behold, thy sonne Ioseph is come to thee, and Israel tooke his strength vnto him and sate vpon the bed. |
| 48:3 | Then Iaakob sayde vnto Ioseph, God almightie appeared vnto me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me. |
| 48:4 | And he sayde vnto me, Behold, I wil make thee fruitefull, and will multiplie thee, and will make a great number of people of thee, and will giue this lande vnto thy seede after thee for an euerlasting possession. |
| 48:5 | And now thy two sonnes, Manasseh and Ephraim, which are borne vnto thee in the lande of Egypt, before I came to thee into Egypt, shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon are mine. |
| 48:6 | But the linage, which thou hast begotten after them, shalbe thine: they shall be called after the names of their brethren in their inheritance. |
| 48:7 | Nowe when I came from Padan, Rahel died vpon mine hande in the lande of Canaan, by the way when there was but halfe a dayes iourney of grounde to come to Ephrath: and I buryed her there in the way to Ephrath: the same is Beth-lehem. |
| 48:8 | Then Israel beheld Iosephs sonnes and sayd, Whose are these? |
| 48:9 | And Ioseph sayd vnto his father, They are my sonnes, which God hath giuen mee here. Then he sayd, I pray thee, bring them to me, that I may blesse them: |
| 48:10 | (For the eyes of Israel were dimme for age, so that hee coulde not well see) Then he caused them to come to him, and he kissed them and embraced them. |
| 48:11 | And Israel sayde vnto Ioseph, I had not thought to haue seene thy face: yet lo, God hath shewed me also thy seede. |
| 48:12 | And Ioseph tooke them away from his knees, and did reuerence downe to the ground. |
| 48:13 | Then tooke Ioseph them both, Ephraim in his right hand towarde Israels left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israels right hand, so he brought them vnto him. |
| 48:14 | But Israel stretched out his right hand, and layde it on Ephraims head, which was the yonger, and his left hande vpon Manassehs head (directing his handes of purpose) for Manasseh was the elder. |
| 48:15 | Also he blessed Ioseph and sayde, The God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Izhak did walke, the God, which hath fed me al my life long vnto this day, blesse thee. |
| 48:16 | The Angel, which hath deliuered me from all euill, blesse the children, and let my name be named vpon them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Izhak, that they may growe as fish into a multitude in the middes of the earth. |
| 48:17 | But when Ioseph sawe that his father layde his right hande vpon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him: and he stayed his fathers hand to remooue it from Ephraims head to Manassehs head. |
| 48:18 | And Ioseph sayde vnto his father, Not so, my father, for this is the eldest: put thy right hand vpon his head. |
| 48:19 | But his father refused, and sayd, I know well, my sonne, I know well: he shalbe also a people, and he shalbe great likewise: but his yonger brother shalbe greater then he, and his seede shall be full of nations. |
| 48:20 | So he blessed them that day, and sayde, In thee Israel shall blesse, and say, God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh. and he set Ephraim before Manasseh. |
| 48:21 | Then Israel said vnto Ioseph, Behold, I die, and God shall be with you, and bring you againe vnto the land of your fathers. |
| 48:22 | Moreouer, I haue giuen vnto thee one portion aboue thy brethren, which I gate out of the hand of the Amorite by my sworde and by my bowe. |
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.