Textus Receptus Bibles
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
| 4:1 | Therefore it displeased Ionah exceedingly, and he was angry. |
| 4:2 | And he prayed vnto the Lord, and saide, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my countrey? therefore I preuented it to flee vnto Tarshish: for I knewe that thou art a gratious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindnes, and repentest thee of the euill. |
| 4:3 | Therefore nowe O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me: for it is better for me to die then to liue. |
| 4:4 | Then saide the Lord, Doest thou well to be angry? |
| 4:5 | So Ionah went out of the citie and sate on the East side of the citie, and there made him a boothe, and sate vnder it in the shadowe till he might see what should be done in the citie. |
| 4:6 | And the Lord God prepared a gourde, and made it to come vp ouer Ionah, that it might be a shadowe ouer his head and deliuer him from his griefe. So Ionah was exceeding glad of the gourde. |
| 4:7 | But God prepared a worme when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd, that it withered. |
| 4:8 | And when the sunne did arise, God prepared also a feruent East winde: and the sunne beat vpon the head of Ionah, that he fainted, and wished in his heart to die, and said, It is better for me to dye, then to liue. |
| 4:9 | And God said vnto Ionah, Doest thou well to be angrie for the gourde? And he said, I doe well to be angrie vnto the death. |
| 4:10 | Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pitie on the gourde for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it growe, which came vp in a night, and perished in a night, |
| 4:11 | And shoulde not I spare Nineueh that great citie, wherein are sixe score thousande persons, that cannot discerne betweene their right hand, and their left hand, and also much cattell? |
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.