Textus Receptus Bibles
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
| 8:1 | And when he had opened the seuenth seale, there was silence in heauen about halfe an houre. |
| 8:2 | And I sawe the seuen Angels, which stoode before God, and to them were giuen seuen trumpets. |
| 8:3 | Then another Angel came and stoode before the altar hauing a golden censer, and much odours was giuen vnto him, that hee shoulde offer with the prayers of all Saintes vpon the golden altar, which is before the throne. |
| 8:4 | And the smoke of the odours with the prayers of the Saintes, went vp before God, out of the Angels hand. |
| 8:5 | And the Angel tooke the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth, and there were voyces, and thundrings, and lightnings, and earthquake. |
| 8:6 | Then the seuen Angels, which had the seuen trumpets, prepared themselues to blow the trumpets. |
| 8:7 | So the first Angell blewe the trumpet, and there was haile and fire, mingled with blood, and they were cast into the earth, and the thirde part of trees was burnt, and all greene grasse was burnt. |
| 8:8 | And the second Angel blew the trumpet, and as it were a great mountaine, burning with fire, was cast into the sea, and the thirde part of the sea became blood. |
| 8:9 | And the thirde part of the creatures, which were in the sea, and had life, died, and the thirde part of shippes were destroyed. |
| 8:10 | Then the thirde Angel blew the trumpet, and there fell a great starre from heauen, burning like a torche, and it fell into the thirde part of the riuers, and into the fountaines of waters. |
| 8:11 | And the name of the starre is called wormewood: therefore the thirde part of the waters became wormewood, and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter. |
| 8:12 | And the fourth Angel blew the trumpet, and the thirde part of the sunne was smitten, and the thirde part of the moone, and the thirde part of the starres, so that the thirde part of them was darkened: and the day was smitten, that the thirde part of it could not shine, and likewise the night. |
| 8:13 | And I beheld, and heard one Angel flying thorow the middes of heauen, saying with a loude voyce, Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the sounds to come of the trumpet of the three Angels, which were yet to blowe the trumpets. |
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.