Textus Receptus Bibles
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
| 5:1 | Then I turned me, and lifted vp mine eyes and looked, and beholde, a flying booke. |
| 5:2 | And he said vnto me, What seest thou? And I answered, I see a flying booke: the length thereof is twentie cubites, and the breadth thereof tenne cubites. |
| 5:3 | Then said he vnto me, This is the curse that goeth foorth ouer the whole earth: for euery one that stealeth, shalbe cut off aswell on this side, as on that: and euery one that sweareth, shall be cut off aswell on this side, as on that. |
| 5:4 | I will bring it forth, saith the Lord of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the thiefe, and into the house of him, that falsely sweareth by my Name: and it shall remaine in the middes of his house, and shall consume it, with the timber thereof, and stones thereof. |
| 5:5 | Then the Angel that talked with me, went foorth, and said vnto me, Lift vp now thine eyes, and see what is this that goeth foorth. |
| 5:6 | And I saide, What is it? And hee sayde, This is an Ephah that goeth foorth. Hee saide moreouer, This is the sight of them through all the earth. |
| 5:7 | And beholde, there was lift vp a talent of lead: and this is a woman that sitteth in the middes of the Ephah. |
| 5:8 | And he said, This is wickednes, and he cast it into the middes of the Ephah, and hee cast the weight of lead vpon the mouth thereof. |
| 5:9 | Then lift I vp mine eyes, and looked: and beholde, there came out two women, and the winde was in their wings (for they had wings like the wings of a storke) and they lift vp the Ephah betweene the earth and the heauen. |
| 5:10 | Then saide I to the Angel that talked with me, Whither doe these beare the Ephah? |
| 5:11 | And hee saide vnto mee, To builde it an house in the lande of Shinar, and it shall be established and set there vpon her owne place. |
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.