Geneva Bible 1599

The Geneva Bible, initially published in 1560 and in its influential revised edition of 1599, is one of the most important Protestant translations in Anglophone history. It was produced in Geneva by English Protestant exiles during the reign of Catholic Mary I, known as Bloody Mary, under the leadership of William Whittingham, with the collaboration of Anthony Gilby, Thomas Sampson, and others. The Calvinist city was then a center of Reformed scholarship under the influence of John Calvin and Theodore Beza.

The translation methodology proceeded from the Masoretic Hebrew and from the Greek of the Textus Receptus in the best editions available in the sixteenth century, with critical reference to the Vulgate and German and French Protestant translations. The Geneva Bible introduced striking editorial innovations: it was the first English Bible to use numbered verses throughout the text, included extensive marginal notes of Reformed orientation, maps, indexes, and tables. Its language is vigorous and literary, and directly influenced Shakespeare, John Milton, John Bunyan, and other giants of English literature.

It was the preferred Bible of the Puritans, of the Pilgrim Fathers who crossed the Atlantic on the Mayflower in 1620, and of the Founding Fathers of the Protestant colonial experience in North America. It preceded the King James Version by twelve years, and for decades the two translations coexisted, with the Geneva remaining popular in homes due to its notes. English authorities, eventually uncomfortable with the Calvinist tone of the marginal notes considered politically subversive, favored the KJV, but the Geneva maintained lasting influence on the Anglophone Protestant tradition.

The text is in the public domain worldwide. It continues to be reprinted, studied academically, and used by traditionalist Reformed congregations who value its historical heritage and its Calvinist theological notes.