Textus Receptus Bibles
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
| 2:1 | When Jesus then was borne at Bethleem in Iudea, in the dayes of Herod the King, beholde, there came Wisemen from the East to Hierusalem, |
| 2:2 | Saying, Where is that King of the Iewes that is borne? for wee haue seene his starre in the East, and are come to worship him. |
| 2:3 | When King Herod heard this, he was troubled, and all Hierusalem with him. |
| 2:4 | And gathering together all the chiefe Priestes and Scribes of the people, hee asked of them, where Christ should be borne. |
| 2:5 | And they saide vnto him, At Beth-leem in Iudea: for so it is written by the Prophet, |
| 2:6 | And thou Beth-leem in the lande of Iuda, art not the least among the Princes of Iuda: For out of thee shall come the gouernour that shall feede that my people Israel. |
| 2:7 | Then Herod priuily called the Wisemen, and diligently inquired of them the time of the starre that appeared, |
| 2:8 | And sent them to Beth-leem, saying, Goe, and searche diligently for the babe: and when ye haue founde him, bring mee worde againe, that I may come also, and worship him. |
| 2:9 | So when they had heard the King, they departed: and loe, the starre which they had seene in the East, went before them, till it came and stoode ouer the place where the babe was. |
| 2:10 | And when they sawe the starre, they reioyced with an exceeding great ioy, |
| 2:11 | And went into the house, and founde the babe with Mary his mother, and fell downe, and worshipped him, and opened their treasures, and presented vnto him giftes, euen golde, and frankincense, and myrrhe. |
| 2:12 | And after they were warned of God in a dreame, that they should not go againe to Herod, they returned into their countrey another way. |
| 2:13 | After their departure, behold, the Angel of the Lord appeareth to Ioseph in a dreame, saying, Arise, and take the babe and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be there til I bring thee word: for Herod will seeke the babe, to destroy him. |
| 2:14 | So he arose and tooke the babe and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt, |
| 2:15 | And was there vnto the death of Herod, that that might be fulfilled, which is spoken of the Lord by the Prophet, saying, Out of Egypt haue I called my sonne. |
| 2:16 | Then Herod, seeing that he was mocked of the Wisemen, was exceeding wroth, and sent foorth, and slew all the male children that were in Beth-leem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two yeere old and vnder, according to the time which he had diligently searched out of the Wisemen. |
| 2:17 | Then was that fulfilled which is spoken by the Prophet Ieremias, saying, |
| 2:18 | In Rhama was a voyce heard, mourning, and weeping, and great howling: Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they were not. |
| 2:19 | And whe Herod was dead, behold, an Angel of the Lord appeareth in a dreame to Ioseph in Egypt, |
| 2:20 | Saying, Arise, and take the babe and his mother, and goe into the land of Israel: for they are dead which sought the babes life. |
| 2:21 | Then he arose vp and tooke the babe and his mother, and came into the land of Israel. |
| 2:22 | But whe he heard that Archelaus did reigne in Iudea in stead of his father Herod, he was afraide to go thither: yet after he was warned of God in a dreame, he turned aside into the parts of Galile, |
| 2:23 | And went and dwelt in a citie called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophets, which was, That hee should be called a Nazarite. |
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.