History of the English Bible: question seven

That is correct!

I am happy to own an authentic original leaf of a Geneva Bible from a 1607 printing. Sometimes when old Bibles are badly damaged, their pages are made available to collectors. On one side of the page that I own is the first page of Deuteronomy. Notice the margin notes. Click on the image below for an enlarged front and back view of the page .

Leaf from a Geneva Bible

Further Reading/References
Geneva Bible, britannia.com (short article)
The Geneva Bible, Center for Reformed Theology and Apologetics
What is the Geneva Bible?, gotQuestions.org

TIMELINE: 1568 AD: The Bishops’ Bible Printed. The Bible of which the King James was a Revision (80 Books).
Timeline credit: greatsite.com

Our next Bible brings us back to England and to England’s answer to the Geneva Bible.  The Puritan tone in the notes of the Geneva Bible was not appreciated by Queen Elizabeth and by some of the bishops in the Church of England.  Because of this and because the Geneva Bible made the problems with the then sanctioned Great Bible of England more obvious, a new Bible project was started. The result was the Bishops’ Bible. It was an official version, but did not reach the popularity of the Geneva Bible. It does, however, have the distinction of being mentioned in the first rule of a list of rules that guided the translators of the King James Bible, a list approved of by King James. The first rule says “The ordinary Bible, read in the church, commonly called the Bishops Bible, to be followed, and as little altered as the original will permit.”

Anglican bishops worked on the translation of the Bishops’ Bible using previous Bible versions (including ironically, the Geneva Bible) under the guidance of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Due to a lack of strong organized oversight there are some issues with the version like inconsistencies in the way some words of the original language were rendered in English.

Who was the Archbishop of Canterbury at this time?

A. Justin Welby
B. Cardinal Reginald Pole
C. Matthew Parker
D. Thomas Cranmer

Find Out! (then hit your back button to return)
The Bishops’ Bible, Bible Research