Textus Receptus Bibles
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
| 1:1 | These bee the wordes which Moses spake vnto all Israel, on this side Iorden in the wildernesse, in the plaine, ouer against the red Sea, betweene Paran and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Di-zahab. |
| 1:2 | There are eleuen dayes iourney from Horeb vnto Kadesh-barnea, by the way of mout Seir. |
| 1:3 | And it came to passe in the first day of the eleuenth moneth, in the fourtieth yeere that Moses spake vnto the children of Israel according vnto all that the Lord had giuen him in commandement vnto them, |
| 1:4 | After that he had slaine Sihon the king of the Amorites which dwelt in Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, which dwelt at Ashtaroth in Edrei. |
| 1:5 | On this side Iorden in the lande of Moab began Moses to declare this lawe, saying, |
| 1:6 | The Lord our God spake vnto vs in Horeb, saying, Ye haue dwelt long ynough in this mount, |
| 1:7 | Turne you and depart, and goe vnto the mountaine of the Amorites, and vnto all places neere thereunto in the plaine, in the mountaine, or in the valley: both Southwarde, and to the Sea side, to the land of the Canaanites, and vnto Lebanon: euen vnto the great riuer, the riuer Perath. |
| 1:8 | Beholde, I haue set the land before you: go in and possesse that land which the Lord sware vnto your fathers, Abraham, Izhak, and Iaakob, to giue vnto them and to their seede after them. |
| 1:9 | And I spake vnto you the same time, saying, I am not able to beare you my selfe alone: |
| 1:10 | The Lord your God hath multiplied you: and beholde, ye are this day as the starres of heauen in nomber: |
| 1:11 | (The Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many moe as ye are, and blesse you, as he hath promised you) |
| 1:12 | Howe can I alone beare your combrance and your charge, and your strife? |
| 1:13 | Bring you men of wisedome and of vnderstanding, and knowen among your tribes, and I will make them rulers ouer you: |
| 1:14 | Then ye answered me and said, The thing is good that thou hast commanded vs to doe. |
| 1:15 | So I tooke the chiefe of your tribes wise and knowen men, and made them rulers ouer you, captaines ouer thousands, and captaines ouer hundreds, and captaines ouer fiftie, and captaines ouer tenne, and officers among your tribes. |
| 1:16 | And I charged your iudges that same time, saying, Heare the controuersies betweene your brethren, and iudge righteously betweene euery man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him. |
| 1:17 | Ye shall haue no respect of person in iudgement, but shall heare the small aswell as the great: yee shall not feare the face of man: for the iudgement is Gods: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring vnto me, and I will heare it. |
| 1:18 | Also I commanded you the same time all the things which ye should doe. |
| 1:19 | Then we departed from Horeb, and went through all that great and terrible wildernesse (as yee haue seene) by the way of the mountaine of the Amorites, as the Lord our God commanded vs: and we came to Kadesh-barnea. |
| 1:20 | And I saide vnto you, Yee are come vnto the mountaine of the Amorites, which the Lord our God doeth giue vnto vs. |
| 1:21 | Beholde, the Lord thy God hath layde the land before thee: go vp and possesse it, as the Lord the God of thy fathers hath saide vnto thee: feare not, neither be discouraged. |
| 1:22 | Then ye came vnto me euery one, and said, We wil send men before vs, to search vs out the land and to bring vs word againe, what way we must go vp by, and vnto what cities we shall come. |
| 1:23 | So the saying pleased me well, and I tooke twelue men of you, of euery tribe one. |
| 1:24 | Who departed, and went vp into the mountaine, and came vnto the riuer Eshcol, and searched out the land. |
| 1:25 | And tooke of the fruite of the land in their hands, and brought it vnto vs, and brought vs worde againe, and sayd, It is a good land, which the Lord our God doeth giue vs. |
| 1:26 | Notwithstanding, ye would not go vp, but were disobedient vnto the commandement of the Lord your God, |
| 1:27 | And murmured in your tentes, and sayd, Because the Lord hated vs, therefore hath hee brought vs out of the land of Egypt, to deliuer vs into the hand of the Amorites, and to destroy vs. |
| 1:28 | Whither shall we go vp? our brethren haue discouraged our hearts, saying, The people is greater, and taller then we: the cities are great and walled vp to heauen: and moreouer we haue seene the sonnes of the Anakims there. |
| 1:29 | But I sayd vnto you, Dread not, nor be afrayd of them. |
| 1:30 | The Lord your God, who goeth before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did vnto you in Egypt before your eyes, |
| 1:31 | And in the wildernesse, where thou hast seene how the Lord thy God bare thee, as a man doeth beare his sonne, in all the way which ye haue gone, vntill ye came vnto this place. |
| 1:32 | Yet for all this ye did not beleeue the Lord your God, |
| 1:33 | Who went in the way before you, to search you out a place to pitch your tentes in, in fire by night, that ye might see what way to goe, and in a cloude by day. |
| 1:34 | Then the Lord heard the voyce of your wordes, and was wroth, and sware, saying, |
| 1:35 | Surely there shall not one of these men of this froward generation, see that good land, which I sware to giue vnto your fathers, |
| 1:36 | Saue Caleb the sonne of Iephunneh: he shall see it, and to him will I giue the land that he hath troden vpon, and to his children, because he hath constantly followed the Lord. |
| 1:37 | Also the Lord was angry with me for your sakes, saying, Thou also shalt not goe in thither, |
| 1:38 | But Ioshua the sonne of Nun which standeth before thee, he shall go in thither: incourage him: for he shall cause Israel to inherite it. |
| 1:39 | Moreouer, your children, which ye sayd should be a praye, and your sonnes, which in that day had no knowledge betweene good and euill, they shall go in thither, and vnto them wil I giue it, and they shall possesse it. |
| 1:40 | But as for you, turne backe, and take your iourney into the wildernesse by the way of the red Sea. |
| 1:41 | Then ye answered and sayd vnto me, We haue sinned against the Lord, we wil go vp, and fight, according to all that the Lord our God hath commanded vs: and ye armed you euery man to the warre, and were ready to goe vp into the mountaine. |
| 1:42 | But the Lord said vnto me, Say vnto them, Goe not vp, neither fight, (for I am not among you) least ye fall before your enemies. |
| 1:43 | And when I told you, ye would not heare, but rebelled against the commandement of the Lord, and were presumptuous, and went vp into the mountaine. |
| 1:44 | Then the Amorites which dwelt in that mountaine came out against you, and chased you (as bees vse to doe) and destroied you in Seir, euen vnto Hormah. |
| 1:45 | And when ye came againe, ye wept before the Lord, but the Lord would not heare your voyce, nor incline his eares vnto you. |
| 1:46 | So ye abode in Kadesh a long time, according to the time that ye had remained before. |
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.