Textus Receptus Bibles
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
| 3:1 | Wherefore since we could no longer forbare, wee thought it good to remaine at Athens alone, |
| 3:2 | And haue sent Timotheus our brother and minister of God, and our labour felow in the Gospel of Christ, to stablish you, and to comfort you touching your faith, |
| 3:3 | That no man should be moued with these afflictions: for ye your selues knowe, that we are appointed thereunto. |
| 3:4 | For verily when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulations, euen as it came to passe, and ye knowe it. |
| 3:5 | Euen for this cause, when I could no longer forbeare, I sent him that I might knowe of your faith, lest the tempter had tempted you in any sort, and that our labour had bene in vaine. |
| 3:6 | But now lately when Timotheus came from you vnto vs, and brought vs good tidings of your faith and loue, and that ye haue good remembrance of vs alwayes, desiring to see vs, as we also do you, |
| 3:7 | Therefore, brethren, we had consolation in you, in all our affliction and necessitie through your faith. |
| 3:8 | For nowe are wee aliue, if ye stand fast in the Lord. |
| 3:9 | For what thankes can wee recompense to God againe for you, for all the ioy wherewith we reioyce for your sakes before our God, |
| 3:10 | Night and day, praying exceedingly that wee might see your face, and might accomplish that which is lacking in your faith? |
| 3:11 | Nowe God himselfe, euen our Father, and our Lord Iesus Christ, guide our iourney vnto you, |
| 3:12 | And the Lord increase you, and make you abound in loue one toward another, and towarde all men, euen as we doe toward you: |
| 3:13 | To make your hearts stable and vnblameable in holines before God euen our Father, at the comming of our Lord Iesus Christ with all his Saints. |
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.