The Geneva Bible - The Bible of the Protestant Reformation (1560 Ed.)

''Reprinted from the facsimile edition of the 1560 Geneva Bible that was published by the University of Wisconsin Press in 1969, this improved version is available in both genuine leather and in cloth covers, Lloyd E. Berry's Introduction to the 1969 UWP facsimile is included and provides a wealth of interesting historical background detail to the 1560 edition. It is followed by a useful bibliography which, although not exhaustive, points the reader to further sources of information about historical matters raised in the Introduction. To aid the mid-16th century reader the translators of this Bible provided a marginal commentary, both textual and explanatory, 'upon all the hard places'. While the Scripture text of the Geneva Bible can be found in print, on CD-ROM, and on the World Wide Web, this magnificent reproduction of the I560 edition allows the reader to truly appreciate in the original format what is perhaps the Geneva Bible's most historically significant feature its marginal notes. By the end of the I6th century the Geneva Bible had become quite a different book from the edition of 1560. Thomson's notes on the NT (added I576), the two Calvinistic catechisms (added 1568, I579), and the Junius notes on Revelation (I599 editions onwards) all reinforced the strong Calvinistic tone of the Geneva Bible, so much loathed by King James I. By contrast the notes of the 1560 edition were, according to Berry, largely exegetical than argumentative. B. F. Westcott reckoned the marginal commentary to be 'pure and vigorous in style, and, if slightly tinged with Calvinistic doctrine', it was 'on the whole neither unjust or illiberal'. Printed on good quality, gilt-edged paper, the leather edition is beautifully bound. The 1560 edition also contains twenty-six woodcuts and five maps. Readers should note that being a facsimile the spelling throughout is in the old English forms commonly used in the sixteenth century. This is a wonderful piece of English Bible history to be treasured.'' --Banner of Truth

Queen Mary's (1553-1558) persecution of her Protestant subjects caused many to flee to the continent to avoid imprisonment or execution. Geneva, Switzerland soon became a center for Protestant biblical scholarship. It was there that a group of the movement's leading lights gathered to undertake a fresh translation of the scriptures into English, beginning in 1556. Published in 1560, the "Geneva Bible's" popularity kept it in print until 1644 - long after the advent of the Authorized Version (a.k.a. "King James Version"). It was an English Bible that met the needs of both clergy and laity. Perhaps the Geneva Bible's greatest contribution was its commentary, which under girded the emerging practice of sermonizing and helped foster scripture literacy.