Textus Receptus Bibles
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
| 1:1 | Nowe in the first yere of Cyrus King of Persia (that the worde of the Lord, spoken by the mouth of Ieremiah, might be accomplished) the Lord stirred vp the spirite of Cyrus King of Persia, and hee made a Proclamation thorowe all his Kingdome, and also by writing, saying, |
| 1:2 | Thus saith Cyrus King of Persia, The Lord God of heauen hath giuen me all the kingdomes of the earth, and he hath commanded me to builde him an house in Ierusalem, which is in Iudah. |
| 1:3 | Who is he among you of all his people with whome his God is? let him goe vp to Ierusalem which is in Iudah, and buylde the house of the Lord God of Israel: he is the God, which is in Ierusalem. |
| 1:4 | And euery one that remayneth in any place (where he soiourneth) let the men of his place relieue him with siluer and with golde, and with substance, and with cattel, and with a willing offring, for the house of God that is in Ierusalem. |
| 1:5 | Then the chiefe fathers of Iudah and Beniamin, and the Priests and Leuites rose vp, with al them whose spirit God had raysed to goe vp, to builde the house of the Lord which is in Ierusalem. |
| 1:6 | And all they that were about them, strengthened their handes with vessels of siluer, with golde, with substance and with cattell, and with precious thinges, besides all that was willingly offred. |
| 1:7 | Also the King Cyrus brought forth the vessels of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of Ierusalem, and had put them in the house of his god. |
| 1:8 | Euen them did Cyrus King of Persia bring forth by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and counted them vnto Sheshbazzar the Prince of Iudah. |
| 1:9 | And this is the nomber of them, thirtie basins of golde, a thousand basins of siluer, nine and twentie kniues, |
| 1:10 | Thirtie boules of gold, and of siluer boules of the second sort, foure hundreth and tenne, and of other vessels, a thousand. |
| 1:11 | All the vessels of golde and siluer were fiue thousand and foure hundreth. Sheshbazzar brought vp all with them of the captiuitie that came vp from Babel to Ierusalem. |
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.