Textus Receptus Bibles
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
| 21:1 | Now these are the lawes, which thou shalt set before them: |
| 21:2 | If thou bye an Ebrewe seruant, he shall serue sixe yeres, and in the seuenth he shall go out free, for nothing. |
| 21:3 | If he came himselfe alone, he shall goe out himselfe alone: if hee were married, then his wife shall go out with him. |
| 21:4 | If his master haue giuen him a wife, and she hath borne him sonnes or daughters, he wife and her children shalbe her masters, but he shall goe out himselfe alone. |
| 21:5 | But if the seruant saye thus, I loue my master, my wife and my children, I will not goe out free, |
| 21:6 | Then his master shall bring him vnto the Iudges, and set him to the dore, or to the poste, and his master shall bore his eare through with a nawle, and he shall serue him for euer. |
| 21:7 | Likewise if a man sell his daughter to be a seruant, she shall not goe out as the men seruantes doe. |
| 21:8 | If shee please not her master, who hath betrothed her to him selfe, then shall hee cause to buy her: hee shall haue no power to sell her to a strange people, seeing he despised her. |
| 21:9 | But if he hath betrothed her vnto his sonne, he shall deale with her according to the custome of the daughters. |
| 21:10 | If he take him another wife, he shall not diminish her foode, her rayment, and recompence of her virginitie. |
| 21:11 | And if he do not these three vnto her, the shall she go out free, paying no money. |
| 21:12 | He that smiteth a man, and he die, shall dye the death. |
| 21:13 | And if a man hath not layed wayte, but God hath offered him into his hande, then I wil appoynt thee a place whither he shall flee. |
| 21:14 | But if a man come presumptuously vpon his neighbour to slay him with guile, thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die. |
| 21:15 | Also hee that smiteth his father or his mother, shall die the death. |
| 21:16 | And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, if it be founde with him, shall die the death. |
| 21:17 | And hee that curseth his father or his mother, shall die the death. |
| 21:18 | When men also striue together, and one smite another with a stone, or with the fist, and he die not, but lieth in bed, |
| 21:19 | If hee rise againe and walke without vpon his staffe, then shall he that smote him go quite, saue onely hee shall beare his charges for his resting, and shall pay for his healing. |
| 21:20 | And if a man smite his seruant, or his maide with a rod, and he die vnder his hande, he shalbe surely punished. |
| 21:21 | But if he continue a day, or two dayes, hee shall not be punished: for he is his money. |
| 21:22 | Also if men striue and hurt a woman with childe, so that her childe depart from her, and death follow not, hee shall bee surely punished according as the womans husband shall appoynt him, or he shall pay as the Iudges determine. |
| 21:23 | But if death follow, then thou shalt paye life for life, |
| 21:24 | Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hande for hand, foote for foote, |
| 21:25 | Burning for burning, wound for wounde, stripe for stripe. |
| 21:26 | And if a man smite his seruant in the eie, or his maide in the eye, and hath perished it, hee shall let him goe free for his eye. |
| 21:27 | Also if he smite out his seruants tooth, or his maides tooth, he shall let him goe out free for his tooth. |
| 21:28 | If an oxe gore a man or a woman, that he die, the oxe shalbe stoned to death, and his flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner of the oxe shall goe quite. |
| 21:29 | If the oxe were wont to push in times past, and it hath bene tolde his master, and hee hath not kept him, and after he killeth a man or a woman, the oxe shall be stoned, and his owner shall die also. |
| 21:30 | If there be set to him a summe of mony, then he shall pay the raunsome of his life, whatsoeuer shalbe laied vpon him. |
| 21:31 | Whether he hath gored a sonne or gored a daughter, he shalbe iudged after the same maner. |
| 21:32 | If the oxe gore a seruant or a mayde, hee shall giue vnto their master thirtie shekels of siluer, and the oxe shalbe stoned. |
| 21:33 | And when a man shall open a well, or when he shall dig a pit and couer it not, and an oxe or an asse fall therein, |
| 21:34 | The owner of the pit shall make it good, and giue money to the owners thereof, but the dead beast shalbe his. |
| 21:35 | And if a mans oxe hurt his neighbours oxe that he die, then they shall sel the liue oxe, and deuide the money thereof, and the dead oxe also they shall deuide. |
| 21:36 | Or if it bee knowen that the oxe hath vsed to push in times past, and his master hath not kept him, he shall pay oxe for oxe, but the dead shall be his owne. |
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.