Textus Receptus Bibles
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
| 1:1 | The burden of the woorde of the Lord to Israel by the ministerie of Malachi. |
| 1:2 | I haue loued you, sayth the Lord: yet yee say, Wherein hast thou loued vs? Was not Esau Iaakobs brother, saith the Lord? yet I loued Iaakob, |
| 1:3 | And I hated Esau, and made his mountaines wast, and his heritage a wildernes for dragons. |
| 1:4 | Though Edom say, wee are impouerished, but we will returne and build the desolate places, yet sayeth the Lord of hostes, they shall builde, but I will destroy it, and they shall call them, The border of wickednes, and the people, with whome the Lord is angrie for euer. |
| 1:5 | And your eyes shall see it, and yee shall say, The Lord will be magnified vpon the border of Israel. |
| 1:6 | A sonne honoureth his father, and a seruant his master. If then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my feare, sayth the Lord of hostes vnto you, O Priestes, that despise my Name? and yee say, Wherein haue we despised thy Name? |
| 1:7 | Ye offer vncleane bread vpon mine altar, and you say, Wherein haue we polluted thee? In that ye say the table of the Lord is not to be regarded. |
| 1:8 | And if yee offer the blinde for sacrifice, it is not euill: and if ye offer the lame and sicke, it is not euill: offer it nowe vnto thy prince: will he be content with thee, or accept thy person, saieth the Lord of hostes? |
| 1:9 | And nowe, I pray you, pray before God, that he may haue mercie vpon vs: this hath beene by your meanes: will hee regard your persons, sayth the Lord of hostes? |
| 1:10 | Who is there euen among you, that would shut the doores? and kindle not fire on mine altar in vaine, I haue no pleasure in you, sayeth the Lord of hostes, neither will I accept an offering at your hande. |
| 1:11 | For from the rising of the sunne vnto the going downe of the same, my Name is great among the Gentiles, and in euery place incense shalbe offred vnto my Name, and a pure offering: for my Name is great among the heathen, sayeth the Lord of hostes. |
| 1:12 | But ye haue polluted it, in that ye say, The table of the Lord is polluted and the fruit thereof, euen his meat is not to be regarded. |
| 1:13 | Ye said also, Beholde, it is a wearines, and ye haue snuffed at it, sayth the Lord of hostes, and ye offred that which was torne, and the lame and the sicke: thus yee offred an offring: shoulde I accept this of your hand, sayth the Lord? |
| 1:14 | But cursed be the deceiuer, which hath in his flocke a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth vnto ye Lord a corrupt thing: for I am a great King, sayth the Lord of hostes, and my Name is terrible among the heathen. |
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.