Textus Receptus Bibles
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
| 2:1 | And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellencie of woordes, or of wisedome, shewing vnto you the testimonie of God. |
| 2:2 | For I esteemed not to knowe any thing among you, saue Iesus Christ, and him crucified. |
| 2:3 | And I was among you in weakenesse, and in feare, and in much trembling. |
| 2:4 | Neither stoode my woorde, and my preaching in the entising speach of mans wisdom, but in plaine euidence of the Spirite and of power, |
| 2:5 | That your faith should not be in the wisdome of men, but in the power of God. |
| 2:6 | And we speake wisedome among them that are perfect: not the wisedome of this world, neither of the princes of this world, which come to nought. |
| 2:7 | But we speake the wisedome of God in a mysterie, euen the hid wisedom, which God had determined before the world, vnto our glory. |
| 2:8 | Which none of the princes of this world hath knowen: for had they knowen it, they would not haue crucified the Lord of glory. |
| 2:9 | But as it is written, The thinges which eye hath not seene, neither eare hath heard, neither came into mans heart, are, which God hath prepared for them that loue him. |
| 2:10 | But God hath reueiled them vnto vs by his Spirit: for the spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deepe things of God. |
| 2:11 | For what man knoweth the things of a man, saue the spirite of a man, which is in him? euen so the things of God knoweth no man, but the spirit of God. |
| 2:12 | Nowe we haue receiued not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit, which is of God, that we might knowe the thinges that are giuen to vs of God. |
| 2:13 | Which things also we speake, not in the woordes which mans wisedome teacheth, but which the holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spirituall things with spirituall things. |
| 2:14 | But the naturall man perceiueth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishnesse vnto him: neither can hee knowe them, because they are spiritually discerned. |
| 2:15 | But hee that is spirituall, discerneth all things: yet he himselfe is iudged of no man. |
| 2:16 | For who hath knowen the minde of the Lord, that hee might instruct him? But we haue the minde of Christ. |
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.