Textus Receptus Bibles
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
| 1:1 | The Elder vnto the beloued Gaius, whom I loue in the trueth. |
| 1:2 | Beloued, I wish chiefly that thou prosperedst and faredst well as thy soule prospereth. |
| 1:3 | For I reioyced greatly when the brethren came, and testified of the trueth that is in thee, how thou walkest in the trueth. |
| 1:4 | I haue no greater ioy then these, that is, to heare that my sonnes walke in veritie. |
| 1:5 | Beloued, thou doest faithfully, whatsoeuer thou doest to the brethren, and to strangers, |
| 1:6 | Which bare witnesse of thy loue before the Churches. Whom if thou bringest on their iourney as it beseemeth according to God, thou shalt doe well, |
| 1:7 | Because that for his Names sake they went forth, and tooke nothing of the Gentiles. |
| 1:8 | We therefore ought to receiue such, that we might be helpers to the trueth. |
| 1:9 | I wrote vnto the Church: but Diotrephes which loueth to haue the preeminence among them, receiueth vs not. |
| 1:10 | Wherefore if I come, I will call to your remembrance his deedes which he doeth, pratling against vs with malicious wordes, and not therewith content, neither he himselfe receiueth the brethren, but forbiddeth them that woulde, and thrusteth them out of the Church. |
| 1:11 | Beloued, follow not that which is euill, but that which is good: he that doeth well, is of God: but he that doeth euill, hath not seene God. |
| 1:12 | Demetrius hath good report of al men, and of the trueth it selfe: yea, and wee our selues beare recorde, and ye know that our record is true. |
| 1:13 | I haue many things to write: but I will not with yncke and pen write vnto thee: |
| 1:14 | For I trust I shall shortly see thee, and we shall speake mouth to mouth. Peace be with thee. The friends salute thee. Greete the friends by name. |
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.