Textus Receptus Bibles
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
| 1:1 | It came to passe in the thirtieth yere in the fourth moneth, and in the fift day of the moneth (as I was among the captiues by the riuer Chebar) that the heauens were opened and I sawe visions of GOD. |
| 1:2 | In the fift day of the moneth (which was the fift yere of King Ioiachins captiuitie) |
| 1:3 | The word of the Lord came vnto Ezekiel the Priest, the sonne of Buzi, in the lande of the Caldeans, by the riuer Chebar, where the hande of the Lord was vpon him. |
| 1:4 | And I looked, and beholde, a whirlewinde came out of the North, a great cloude and a fire wrapped about it, and a brightnesse was about it, and in the middes thereof, to wit, in the middes of the fire came out as the likenesse of amber. |
| 1:5 | Also out of the middes therof came the likenesse of foure beastes, and this was their forme: they had the appearance of a man. |
| 1:6 | And euery one had foure faces, and euery one had foure wings. |
| 1:7 | And their feete were streight feete, and the sole of their feete was like the sole of a calues foote, and they sparkled like the appearance of bright brasse. |
| 1:8 | And the handes of a man came out from vnder their wings in the foure parts of them, and they foure had their faces, and their wings. |
| 1:9 | They where ioyned by their wings one to another, and when they went forth, they returned not, but euery one went streight forward. |
| 1:10 | And the similitude of their faces was as the face of a man: and they foure had the face of a lyon on the right side, and they foure had the face of a bullocke on the left side: they foure also had the face of an eagle. |
| 1:11 | Thus were their faces: but their wings were spred out aboue: two wings of euery one were ioined one to another, and two couered their bodies. |
| 1:12 | And euery one went streight forward: they went whither their spirit led them, and they returned not when they went forth. |
| 1:13 | The similitude also of the beasts, and their appearance was like burning coles of fire, and like the appearance of lampes: for the fire ran among the beastes, and the fire gaue a glister, and out of the fire there went lightning. |
| 1:14 | And the beastes ranne, and returned like vnto lightning. |
| 1:15 | Nowe as I behelde the beastes, beholde, a wheele appeared vpon the earth by the beastes, hauing foure faces. |
| 1:16 | The facion of the wheeles and their worke was like vnto a chrysolite: and they foure had one forme, and their facion, and their worke was as one wheele in another wheele. |
| 1:17 | Whe they went, they went vpon their foure sides, and they returned not when they went. |
| 1:18 | They had also rings, and height, and were fearefull to beholde, and their rings were full of eyes, round about them foure. |
| 1:19 | And when the beastes went, the wheeles went with them: and when the beasts were lift vp from the earth, the wheeles were lift vp. |
| 1:20 | Whither the spirit led them, they went, and thither did the spirite of the wheeles leade them, and the wheeles were lifted vp besides them: for the spirit of the beastes was in the wheeles. |
| 1:21 | When the beastes went, they went, and when they stoode, they stoode, and when they were lifted vp from the earth, the wheeles were lifted vp besides them: for the spirite of the beastes was in the wheeles. |
| 1:22 | And the similitude of the firmament vpon the heads of the beasts was wonderfull, like vnto chrystall, spred ouer their heads aboue. |
| 1:23 | And vnder the firmament were their wings streight, the one toward the other: every one had two, which couered the, and euery one had two, which couered their bodies. |
| 1:24 | And when they went foorth, I heard the noyse of their wings, like the noyse of great waters, and as the voyce of the Almightie, euen the voyce of speach, as the noyse of an host: and when they stood, they let downe their wings. |
| 1:25 | And there was a voyce from the firmament, that was ouer their heads, when they stoode, and had let downe their wings. |
| 1:26 | And aboue the firmament that was ouer their heads, was the facion of a throne like vnto a saphir stone, and vpon the similitude of the throne was by appearance, as the similitude of a man aboue vpon it. |
| 1:27 | And I sawe as the appearance of amber, and as the similitude of fire round about within it to looke to, euen from his loynes vpwarde: and to looke to, euen from his loynes downewarde, I sawe as a likenesse of fire, and brightnesse round about it. |
| 1:28 | As the likenesse of the bowe, that is in the cloude in the day of raine, so was the appearance of the light round about. (Ezekiel : ) This was the appearance of the similitude of the glorie of the Lord: and when I sawe it, I fell vpon my face, and I heard a voyce of one that spake. |
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.