Textus Receptus Bibles
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
| 8:1 | Who is as the wise man? and who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? the wisedome of a man doth make his face to shine: and the strength of his face shalbe changed. |
| 8:2 | I aduertise thee to take heede to ye mouth of the King, and to the worde of the othe of God. |
| 8:3 | Haste not to goe forth of his sight: stand not in an euill thing: for he will doe whatsoeuer pleaseth him. |
| 8:4 | Where the word of ye King is, there is power, and who shall say vnto him, What doest thou? |
| 8:5 | He that keepeth the commandement, shall knowe none euill thing, and the heart of the wise shall knowe the time and iudgement. |
| 8:6 | For to euery purpose there is a time and iudgement, because the miserie of man is great vpon him. |
| 8:7 | For he knoweth not that which shalbe: for who can tell him when it shalbe? |
| 8:8 | Man is not lorde ouer the spirit to retaine the spirite: neither hath hee power in the day of death, nor deliuerance in the battell, neither shall wickednesse deliuer the possessers thereof. |
| 8:9 | All this haue I seene, and haue giuen mine heart to euery worke, which is wrought vnder the sunne, and I sawe a time that man ruleth ouer man to his owne hurt. |
| 8:10 | And likewise I sawe the wicked buried, and they returned, and they that came from the holy place, were yet forgotten in the citie where they had done right: this also is vanitie. |
| 8:11 | Because sentence against an euill worke is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the children of men is fully set in them to doe euill. |
| 8:12 | Though a sinner doe euill an hundreth times, and God prolongeth his dayes, yet I knowe that it shalbe well with them that feare the Lord, and doe reuerence before him. |
| 8:13 | But it shall not be well to the wicked, neither shall he prolong his dayes: he shall be like a shadowe, because he feareth not before God. |
| 8:14 | There is a vanitie, which is done vpon the earth, that there be righteous men to whom it commeth according to the worke of the wicked: and there be wicked men to whom it commeth according to the worke of the iust: I thought also that this is vanitie. |
| 8:15 | And I praysed ioy: for there is no goodnesse to man vnder the sunne, saue to eate and to drinke and to reioyce: for this is adioyned to his labour, the dayes of his life that God hath giuen him vnder the sunne. |
| 8:16 | When I applied mine heart to knowe wisedome, and to behold the busines that is done on earth, that neither day nor night the eyes of man take sleepe, |
| 8:17 | Then I behelde the whole worke of God, that man cannot finde out ye worke that is wrought vnder the sunne: for the which man laboureth to seeke it, and cannot finde it: yea, and though the wise man thinke to knowe it, he cannot finde it. |
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.