Why Should Christians Remember the Geneva Bible?
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We live in a time of excellent availability and resources regarding the Bible. With all the Bibles and different translations available in bookstores today, you’ve probably heard of the King James Bible and even the Gutenberg Bible. Still, without the Geneva Bible, the Bibles we have come to know and love might have looked much different. So, what is the Geneva Bible, and why is it important in the history of Bible translations?
When Was the Geneva Bible Written?
In 1517, when Martin Luther sent his Ninety-Five Theses to the Archbishop of Mainz, what has become known as the Protestant Reformation began. The Protestant Reformation led to a movement to translate the Bible into the common tongue. Previously, the Bible had only been available in Latin and Greek and was limited to priests and scholars of the Catholic Church. With the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg, the Bible was the first book to be printed in 1454.
However, translating the Bible into English remained illegal due to the constitutions of Oxford in 1408. However, William Tyndale was inspired during his studies at Oxford by the Greek translation of the New Testament by Renaissance scholar Erasmus. Tyndale made it his mission to translate the New and Old Testaments into English. While Tyndale was the first to translate the Bible into English, he was martyred before completing the Old Testament.
From Tyndale’s sacrifice came the Cloverdale Bible by Myles Coverdale in 1535 and the Great Bible of 1539, which had been authorized by King Henry VIII when he established the Church of England in 1534. After the death of King Henry and his successor, King Edward VI, Mary Tudor became Queen of England in 1553. Mary the First set out to undo the English Reformation. The persecution of Protestants later earned her the name “Bloody Mary.” Due to this persecution, many Protestants, including Protestant scholars, fled to Geneva, Switzerland. The first English translation of the New Testament was published in 1557, and the first complete edition of the Geneva Bible was published in 1560. However, a complete Geneva Bible was not printed in England until 1576.
Who Were the People Behind the Geneva Bible Translation?
Of the English scholars who fled to Geneva, Switzerland, William Whittingham supervised most of the translation of the New Testament. Christianity.com contributor Britt Mooney notes that William Whittingham was “the brother-in-law of influential Protestant theologian John Calvin. His extensive knowledge of the original biblical languages and his strong commitment to the Reformed tradition contributed to the translation’s accuracy and theological content.”
Miles Coverdale was also a significant contributor to the Geneva Bible. Coverdale had assisted William Tyndale in his translations. Coverdale was invited to participate in the Geneva Bible project due to his expertise in biblical translation. Anthony Gilby, Christopher Goodman, and Protestant clergymen Thomas Sampson and William Cole were others involved in the translation process.
John Knox, the Scottish theologian and founder of the Presbyterian Church of Scottland, was heavily involved in the project. John Knox was not a part of the translation process but in the advocacy and popularity of the Geneva Bible, especially in Scotland.
Sir Rowland Hill was a Lord of England, patron of the arts, and a philanthropist during the reign of Henry VIII, Edward Vi, Mary I, and Elizabeth I. He was the man who funded the publication of the Geneva Bible due to his involvement with the Marian Exiles in Switzerland.
What Made the Geneva Bible Different from Earlier Bible Translations?
When Gutenberg printed the first Bible on his printing press, it was a copy of the Latin Vulgate, a Bible translation commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 AD.
The Geneva Bible wasn’t just an English translation of the Catholic Vulgate. It was the first Bible translation from the original languages, the Aramaic and Greek New Testament and the Hebrew Scriptures. Much of the translation did rely on William Tyndale and Myles Coverdale’s earlier works, but including translations from Hebrew and Aramaic texts was the first effort of its time.
One differentiating factor about the Geneva Bible was that it was printed in a size that was both affordable and in a smaller format, giving it the name of the Breeches Bible.
The Geneva Bible was also the first English Bible organized into chapters and verses.
Another feature of the Geneva Bible was that it didn’t just translate the scriptures but also included annotations and other notes to help the reader study and understand the text. Many of these annotations had Calvinist and Puritan undertones, making it a favorite Puritan translation. A copy of the Geneva Bible even came over to the Americas on the Mayflower with the Pilgrims. However, the theology of these annotations also made them disliked by the Church of England, which encouraged further translations of the Bible English.
How Did the Geneva Bible Influence Later Bible Translations?
Due to the heavy Puritan and Calvinistic influences of the Geneva Bible, it did not have much popularity within the pro-government ideas of the Church of England. These influences led to the Bishop’s Bible, produced by the Church of England in 1568. The notes and annotations that made the Geneva Bible unique were also a source of contention within the Church of England. This led King James the First to commission the “Authorized Version” or the King James Bible, published in 1611—the later efforts of the Rheims-Douai translation in the Catholic community. The Rheims-Douai edition was the translation of the Latin Vulgate into English.
A.S. Herbert’s book, Historical Catalog of Printed Editions of the English Bible, suggests that some of “the Geneva notes were surprisingly included in a few editions of the King James version, even as late as 1715.”
The most significant influence the Geneva Bible has had on future translation was the organization of the individual books of the Bible. Within the Geneva Bible, the contributors were the first to take the individual sixty-six books of the Bible. They broke them down into chapters and verses for easy reference and study.
Why Does the Geneva Bible Matter Today?
The Wycliffe Global Alliance currently records that the Bible has been translated into over 70 languages and the New Testament into over 1,600 languages. Undoubtedly, it ranks among the most popular books of all time. If the Geneva Bible wasn’t the first English translation and the King James Bible’s popularity overshadowed it very quickly, what makes the Geneva Bible important?
With the amount of access we have to the Bible nowadays, it’s hard to remember there was a time when everyday man wasn’t always able to access not just reading the Bible but having the means to understand and study what God’s word means. The Geneva Bible was the first to provide study notes, cross-references, and annotations to help people understand God’s words. Jonathan Edwards notes, “Most people today would not know how to read or study the Bible if this information was removed.”
The Geneva Bible was also the first to be available for people to have in their own homes. This type of access to the truth of God’s word had never existed before, which was a driving factor in the Protestant Reformation.
We must remember that access to the scriptures wasn’t always (and, in some cases, still isn’t) available to all people because of human political agendas. But with a firm understanding of the history behind the Bibles in our homes, we can have a greater appreciation for the truth and joy we can study in our language.
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You can find out more about Valerie, her books, and her blog at www.valeriefentress.com.