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6/13/2025, 8:57:51 PM
>>24463157
The Geneva Bible was probably the most accurate translation of its time and the King James translators borrowed language from it more than they were supposed to, since according to the rules at least, were supposed to follow the Bishops' Bible primarily except where it differed from the Greek manuscripts.
The Geneva translation of 1560 was an English translation based on the best manuscripts that were available at the time, which had been gathered to the city of Geneva. Coincidentally, several major figures in British history like John Knox were exiled to this city in Switzerland due to the infamous reign of Mary I. The translators of the 1560 translation were William Whittingham, Anthony Gilby, Thomas Sampson, Christopher Goodman, William Cole, John Knox, Laurence Tomson and Miles Coverdale. This translation committee apparently had access to Greek manuscripts that had not yet been put into printed form by 1560, but whose readings would soon afterward appear in Theodore Beza's editions of the Textus Receptus, which the King James translators also referred to in a selection of New Testament readings.
The question of where this manuscript collection came from is an interesting one. It seems to have been the work of Beza and Henri Estienne scouring the libraries of Europe and adding to the already extensive set of manuscripts that Robert Estienne had gathered for his New Testament editions in the 1540s and 50s. Their sources appear in some ways to surpass our own, since we find these men occasionally referring to manuscripts that we do not have access to today.
Also of note is the fact that some of their manuscripts for the New Testament could have come from the Vaudois, a group of churches and communities who lived in an isolated set of valleys in Piedmont in Northern Italy. Beza's mention of them in his book on the history of France suggests this possibility. Some men from the Vaudois made the journey to Geneva in the 16th century after hearing about the Reformation. According to documents recovered by Samuel Moreland and others, these churches had practiced believer's baptism and apparently withstood the pressure of the medieval Inquisition for centuries due to their geographical isolation. According to written sources from the time, they were believed to have never adopted the customs and practices of Roman Catholicism, which was first imposed on the area after the Albigensian crusade and establishment of the Inquisition immediately after. It's possible that some of the Geneva manuscripts were theirs, and these sources later influenced the Geneva Bible, which was the first translation of the entire Bible from the original languages to English, and later the KJV.
The Geneva Bible was probably the most accurate translation of its time and the King James translators borrowed language from it more than they were supposed to, since according to the rules at least, were supposed to follow the Bishops' Bible primarily except where it differed from the Greek manuscripts.
The Geneva translation of 1560 was an English translation based on the best manuscripts that were available at the time, which had been gathered to the city of Geneva. Coincidentally, several major figures in British history like John Knox were exiled to this city in Switzerland due to the infamous reign of Mary I. The translators of the 1560 translation were William Whittingham, Anthony Gilby, Thomas Sampson, Christopher Goodman, William Cole, John Knox, Laurence Tomson and Miles Coverdale. This translation committee apparently had access to Greek manuscripts that had not yet been put into printed form by 1560, but whose readings would soon afterward appear in Theodore Beza's editions of the Textus Receptus, which the King James translators also referred to in a selection of New Testament readings.
The question of where this manuscript collection came from is an interesting one. It seems to have been the work of Beza and Henri Estienne scouring the libraries of Europe and adding to the already extensive set of manuscripts that Robert Estienne had gathered for his New Testament editions in the 1540s and 50s. Their sources appear in some ways to surpass our own, since we find these men occasionally referring to manuscripts that we do not have access to today.
Also of note is the fact that some of their manuscripts for the New Testament could have come from the Vaudois, a group of churches and communities who lived in an isolated set of valleys in Piedmont in Northern Italy. Beza's mention of them in his book on the history of France suggests this possibility. Some men from the Vaudois made the journey to Geneva in the 16th century after hearing about the Reformation. According to documents recovered by Samuel Moreland and others, these churches had practiced believer's baptism and apparently withstood the pressure of the medieval Inquisition for centuries due to their geographical isolation. According to written sources from the time, they were believed to have never adopted the customs and practices of Roman Catholicism, which was first imposed on the area after the Albigensian crusade and establishment of the Inquisition immediately after. It's possible that some of the Geneva manuscripts were theirs, and these sources later influenced the Geneva Bible, which was the first translation of the entire Bible from the original languages to English, and later the KJV.
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