Textus Receptus Bibles
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
| 1:1 | The word of the Lord, which came vnto Zephaniah ye sonne of Cushi, the sonne of Gedaliah, the sonne of Amariah, the sonne of Hizkiah, in the dayes of Iosiah, the sonne of Amon King of Iudah. |
| 1:2 | I will surely destroy all things from off the land, saith the Lord. |
| 1:3 | I will destroy man and beast: I wil destroy the foules of the heauen, and the fishes of the sea, and ruines shalbe to the wicked, and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the Lord. |
| 1:4 | I will also stretch out mine hand vpon Iudah, and vpon all the inhabitants of Ierusalem, and I wil cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Chemarims with ye Priestes, |
| 1:5 | And them that worship the hoste of heauen vpon the house tops, and them that worship and sweare by the Lord, and sweare by Malcham, |
| 1:6 | And them that are turned backe from the Lord, and those that haue not sought the Lord, nor inquired for him. |
| 1:7 | Be stil at the presence of the Lord God: for the day of the Lord is at hand: for the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice, and hath sanctified his ghests. |
| 1:8 | And it shalbe in the day of the Lords sacrifice, that I will visite the princes and the Kings children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparell. |
| 1:9 | In the same day also will I visite all those that dance vpon the threshold so proudly, which fill their masters houses by crueltie and deceite. |
| 1:10 | And in that day, saith the Lord, there shall be a noise, and cry from the fishgate, and an howling from the second gate, and a great destruction from the hilles. |
| 1:11 | Howle ye inhabitants of the lowe place: for the companie of the marchants is destroyed: all they that beare siluer, are cut off. |
| 1:12 | And at that time will I searche Ierusalem with lightes, and visite the men that are frosen in their dregges, and say in their heartes, The Lord will neither doe good nor doe euill. |
| 1:13 | Therefore their goods shall be spoyled, and their houses waste: they shall also build houses, but not inhabite them, and they shall plant vineyards, but not drinke the wine thereof. |
| 1:14 | The great day of the Lord is neere: it is neere, and hasteth greatly, euen the voyce of the day of the Lord: the strong man shall cry there bitterly. |
| 1:15 | That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and heauinesse, a day of destruction and desolation, a day of obscuritie and darkenesse, a day of cloudes and blackenesse, |
| 1:16 | A day of the trumpet and alarme against the strong cities, and against the hie towres. |
| 1:17 | And I will bring distresse vpon men, that they shall walke like blind men, because they haue sinned against the Lord, and their blood shall be powred out as dust, and their flesh as the dongue. |
| 1:18 | Neither their siluer nor their golde shalbe able to deliuer them in ye day of the Lords wrath, but the whole lande shalbe deuoured by the fire of his ielousie: for hee shall make euen a speedie riddance of all them that dwell in the land. |
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.