Textus Receptus Bibles
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
| 144:1 | A Psalme of David. Blessed be the Lord my strength, which teacheth mine hands to fight, and my fingers to battell. |
| 144:2 | He is my goodnes and my fortresse, my towre and my deliuerer, my shield, and in him I trust, which subdueth my people vnder me. |
| 144:3 | Lord, what is man that thou regardest him! or the sonne of man that thou thinkest vpon him! |
| 144:4 | Man is like to vanitie: his dayes are like a shadow, that vanisheth. |
| 144:5 | Bow thine heauens, O Lord, and come downe: touch the mountaines and they shall smoke. |
| 144:6 | Cast forth the lightning and scatter them: shoote out thine arrowes, and consume them. |
| 144:7 | Send thine hand from aboue: deliuer me, and take me out of the great waters, and from the hand of strangers, |
| 144:8 | Whose mouth talketh vanitie, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood. |
| 144:9 | I wil sing a new song vnto thee, O God, and sing vnto thee vpon a viole, and an instrument of ten strings. |
| 144:10 | It is he that giueth deliuerance vnto Kings, and rescueth Dauid his seruant from the hurtfull sworde. |
| 144:11 | Rescue me, and deliuer me from the hand of strangers, whose mouth talketh vanitie, and their right hand is a right hand of falshood: |
| 144:12 | That our sonnes may be as the plantes growing vp in their youth, and our daughters as the corner stones, grauen after the similitude of a palace: |
| 144:13 | That our corners may be full, and abounding with diuers sorts, and that our sheepe may bring forth thousands and ten thousand in our streetes: |
| 144:14 | That our oxen may be strong to labour: that there be none inuasion, nor going out, nor no crying in our streetes. |
| 144:15 | Blessed are the people, that be so, yea, blessed are the people, whose God is the Lord. |
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.