The Geneva Bible 1599 (GNV) English Edition Christianity Antique Bibles

The Geneva Bible, a Bible once widely read and influential in the 16th and 17th centuries, was one of the Bibles taken to America on the Mayflower. This superb translation was the product of the best Protestant scholars of the day, including William Whittingham, Miles Coverdale, Christopher Goodman, Anthony Gilby, John Knox, and Thomas Sampson, who produced it based on Greek and Hebrew manuscripts and a revision of William Tyndale's New Testament.

Mary I, also known as "Bloody Mary," was Queen of England and Ireland from 1553 until her death in 1558. Her persecution of Protestants caused the Marian Exile, which drove 800 English scholars to the European continent, where a number of them gathered in Geneva, Switzerland. There, the team of scholars led by William Whittingham and assisted by the aforementioned individuals, produced the Geneva Bible, with the New Testament published in 1557 and the complete Bible in 1560.

The Geneva Bible became the Bible of choice for many of the greatest writers and thinkers of that time, including William Shakespeare, John Bunyan, and John Milton, who used it in their writings. It was unique among all other Bibles, as it was the first to use chapters and numbered verses, and it gained popularity due to its extensive marginal notes, written by Reformation leaders such as John Calvin, which were intended to help explain and interpret the Scriptures for the average reader.

The Geneva Bible is also regarded as history's first study Bible, with its variety of scriptural study guides and aids, including cross-reference verse citations, introductions to each book of the Bible, maps, tables, woodcut illustrations, indexes, and other features. In 2006, Tolle Lege Press released a version of the 1599 Geneva Bible with modern spellings as part of its 1599 Geneva Bible restoration project, retaining the original cross references and study notes by the Protestant Reformation leaders, as well as the Old English glossary.

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