Textus Receptus Bibles
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
| 22:1 | And hee shewed me a pure riuer of water of life, cleare as crystall, proceeding out of the throne of God, and of the Lambe. |
| 22:2 | In the middes of the street of it, and of either side of ye riuer, was the tree of life, which bare twelue maner of fruits, and gaue fruit euery moneth: and the leaues of the tree serued to heale the nations with. |
| 22:3 | And there shalbe no more curse, but ye throne of God and of the Lambe shall be in it, and his seruants shall serue him. |
| 22:4 | And they shall see his face, and his Name shalbe in their foreheads. |
| 22:5 | And there shalbe no night there, and they neede no candle, neither light of the sunne: for the Lord God giueth them light, and they shall reigne for euermore. |
| 22:6 | And he said vnto me, These wordes are faithfull and true: and the Lord God of the holy Prophets sent his Angell to shewe vnto his seruants the things which must shortly be fulfilled. |
| 22:7 | Beholde, I come shortly. Blessed is hee that keepeth the woordes of the prophecie of this booke. |
| 22:8 | And I am Iohn, which sawe and heard these thinges: and when I had heard and seene, I fell downe to worship before the feete of the Angell which shewed me these things. |
| 22:9 | But he sayde vnto me, See thou doe it not: for I am thy fellowe seruaunt, and of thy brethren the Prophets, and of them which keepe the woordes of this booke: worship God. |
| 22:10 | And he said vnto me, Seale not the wordes of the prophecie of this booke: for the time is at hand. |
| 22:11 | He that is vniust, let him be vniust stil and he which is filthie, let him be filthie still: and hee that is righteous, let him be righteous stil: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. |
| 22:12 | And beholde, I come shortly, and my reward is with mee, to giue euery man according as his worke shall be. |
| 22:13 | I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. |
| 22:14 | Blessed are they, that doe his commandements, that their right may be in the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the Citie. |
| 22:15 | For without shall be dogs and inchanters, and whoremongers, and murtherers, and idolaters, and whosoeuer loueth or maketh lies. |
| 22:16 | I Iesus haue sent mine Angell, to testifie vnto you these things in the Churches: I am the root and the generation of Dauid, and the bright morning starre. |
| 22:17 | And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth, say, Come: and let him that is a thirst, come: and let whosoeuer will, take of the water of life freely. |
| 22:18 | For I protest vnto euery man that heareth the words of the prophecie of this booke, If any man shall adde vnto these things, God shall adde vnto him the plagues, that are written in this booke: |
| 22:19 | And if any man shall diminish of the wordes of the booke of this prophecie, God shall take away his part out of the Booke of life, and out of the holie citie, and from those things which are written in this booke. |
| 22:20 | He which testifieth these things, saith, Surely, I come quickly. Amen. Euen so, come Lord Iesus. |
| 22:21 | The grace of our Lord Iesus Christ be with you all, AMEN. |
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.