The Geneva Bible has been the lost treasure of Christendom for almost 400 years. Nearly forgotten by the modern world, this version of the Holy Scriptures was translated and compiled by exiled reformers in Geneva (1557-1560) and stands alone in history as the force that transformed the English speaking world from the backwater of history to the center of civilization...
It is hard for us in our day to realize that the Bible has only been available to the common Christian in his own language for 400 years. Before the printing of Luther's German Bible in 1534 and the Geneva Bible in English, laymen, regardless of nationality, for 1500 years had never had a Bible of their own. The Church and kings kept all but clergy and Latin scholars from reading the Scripture. Since 1401, in England, it had been a capital crime to read the Bible in what a royal edict called the 'vulgar tongue' or the English language...
As the first Bible to be read by the common people in English, the Geneva Bible spread self-government, free enterprise, education, virtue, protection of women and children and godly culture.
John Knox used the Geneva Bible as he preached with power at St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh and brought Scotland back from clan dominated, semi-pagan barbarity to Christian faith and liberty...
For generations after its first printing, the Geneva Bible remained the Bible of hearth and personal study in England, Scotland and then in America...
The Geneva Bible stands as one of the great achievements of Biblical scholarship...
The marginal notes of the Geneva Bible presented a systematic biblical worldview that centered on the Sovereignty of God over all of His creation, including the church and the king...
The marginal notes of the Geneva Bible, along with all of its other unique qualities, led the whole English speaking world away from the ignorance, heresy and tyranny of the Middle Ages into a full understanding of God's Kingdom ruling over all...
The bold innovations of the Geneva Bible impact our world even today. Because of its readable type, cross references, verse divisions, and commentary, the Geneva Bible became the foundation for what we call group Bible study...
A 1579 Scottish edition of the Geneva version was the first Bible printed in Scotland and soon became the standard of the Scottish Kirk (Church-ed.). The Scottish Parliament passed an act soon after the publication of the Geneva Bible in Scotland making it mandatory for every householder worth 300 marks and every yeoman and burgess worth 500 pounds to have a Bible in the 'vulgar tongue' in their homes, under a penalty of 10 pounds.
- Dr. Marshall Foster, excerpts from Introduction to the 1599 Geneva Bible.
