Textus Receptus Bibles
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
| 2:1 | Why doe the heathen rage, and the people murmure in vaine? |
| 2:2 | The Kings of the earth band themselues, and the princes are assembled together against the Lord, and against his Christ. |
| 2:3 | Let vs breake their bands, and cast their cordes from vs. |
| 2:4 | But he that dwelleth in the heauen, shall laugh: the Lord shall haue them in derision. |
| 2:5 | Then shall hee speake vnto them in his wrath, and vexe them in his sore displeasure, saying, |
| 2:6 | Euen I haue set my King vpon Zion mine holy mountaine. |
| 2:7 | I will declare the decree: that is, the Lord hath said vnto me, Thou art my Sonne: this day haue I begotten thee. |
| 2:8 | Aske of me, and I shall giue thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the endes of the earth for thy possession. |
| 2:9 | Thou shalt krush them with a scepter of yron, and breake them in pieces like a potters vessell. |
| 2:10 | Be wise nowe therefore, ye Kings: be learned ye Iudges of the earth. |
| 2:11 | Serue the Lord in feare, and reioyce in trembling. |
| 2:12 | Kisse the sonne, least he be angry, and ye perish in the way, when his wrath shall suddenly burne. blessed are all that trust in him. |
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.