Textus Receptus Bibles
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
| 3:1 | In my bed by night I sought him that my soule loued: I sought him, but I found him not. |
| 3:2 | I will rise therefore nowe, and goe about in the citie, by the streetes and by the open places, and wil seeke him that my soule loueth: I sought him, but I found him not. |
| 3:3 | The watchmen that went about the citie, found mee: to whome I said, Haue you seene him, whome my soule loueth? |
| 3:4 | When I had past a litle from them, then I found him whom my soule loued: I tooke holde on him and left him not, till I had brought him vnto my mothers house into the chamber of her that conceiued me. |
| 3:5 | I charge you, O daughters of Ierusalem, by the roes and by the hindes of the fielde, that ye stirre not vp, nor waken my loue vntill she please. |
| 3:6 | Who is shee that commeth vp out of the wildernes like pillars of smoke perfumed with myrrhe and incense, and with all the spices of the marchant? |
| 3:7 | Beholde his bed, which is Salomons: threescore strong men are round about it, of the valiant men of Israel. |
| 3:8 | They all handle the sworde, and are expert in warre, euery one hath his sword vpon his thigh for the feare by night. |
| 3:9 | King Salomon made himselfe a palace of the trees of Lebanon. |
| 3:10 | Hee made the pillars thereof of siluer, and the pauement thereof of gold, the hangings thereof of purple, whose middes was paued with the loue of the daughters of Ierusalem. |
| 3:11 | Come forth, ye daughters of Zion, and behold the King Salomon with the crowne, wherewith his mother crowned him in ye day of his mariage, and in the day of the gladnes of his heart. |
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.