Textus Receptus Bibles
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
| 3:1 | Doe we begin to praise our selues againe? or neede we as some other, epistles of recommendation vnto you, or letters of recommendation from you? |
| 3:2 | Yee are our epistle, written in our hearts, which is vnderstand, and read of all men, |
| 3:3 | In that yee are manifest, to be the Epistle of Christ, ministred by vs, and written, not with yncke, but with the Spirite of the liuing God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart. |
| 3:4 | And such trust haue we through Christ to God: |
| 3:5 | Not that we are sufficient of our selues, to thinke any thing, as of our selues: but our sufficiencie is of God, |
| 3:6 | Who also hath made vs able ministers of the Newe testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirite: for the letter killeth, but the Spirite giueth life. |
| 3:7 | If then the ministration of death written with letters and ingrauen in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel coulde not beholde the face of Moses, for the glorie of his countenance (which glorie is done away.) |
| 3:8 | Howe shall not the ministration of the Spirite be more glorious? |
| 3:9 | For if the ministerie of condemnation was glorious, much more doeth the ministration of righteousnesse exceede in glorie. |
| 3:10 | For euen that which was glorified, was not glorified in this point, that is, as touching the exceeding glorie. |
| 3:11 | For if that which should be abolished, was glorious, much more shall that which remaineth, be glorious. |
| 3:12 | Seeing then that we haue such trust, we vse great boldnesse of speach. |
| 3:13 | And we are not as Moses, which put a vaile vpon his face, that the children of Israel should not looke vnto the ende of that which should be abolished. |
| 3:14 | Therefore their mindes are hardened: for vntill this day remaineth the same couering vntaken away in the reading of the olde Testament, which vaile in Christ is put away. |
| 3:15 | But euen vnto this day, whe Moses is read, the vaile is laid ouer their hearts. |
| 3:16 | Neuertheles when their heart shall be turned to the Lord, the vaile shalbe taken away. |
| 3:17 | Nowe the Lord is the Spirite, and where the Spirite of the Lord is, there is libertie. |
| 3:18 | But we al behold as in a mirrour the glory of the Lord with open face, and are changed into the same image, from glorie to glorie, as by the Spirit of the Lord. |
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.