Why is the story of the Geneva Bible so important?

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A 1581 edition of the Geneva Bible.
A 1581 edition of the Geneva Bible. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In 1553, Queen Mary ascended the British throne, which began a period of intense persecution of Protestants in England. More than 700 people fled England to escape persecution and settled in and around Geneva, Switzerland, in 1555. The refugees included Miles Coverdale, John Knox, and William Whittingham.

Geneva in the 1550s was the center of Reformed Protestantism. And because of the presence of Theodore Beza, it was also a growing center of biblical scholarship.

While there, the exiles began to see the need for a new translation of the Bible in their own language. The New Testament was finished in 1557, and the complete Bible—along with a revised New Testament—was finished in 1560. The Geneva Bible became the Bible of the common people

The exiles began returning to England in 1558 when Elizabeth I ascended the throne, and they brought their Bible with them.

The Geneva Bible soon became the prominent Bible translation for English-speaking Reformers. More than 140 editions were printed between 1560 and 1644. It was the Bible used by the Puritans, so when you’re reading the Geneva Bible, you’re reading the Bible the Puritans read. The Parliament of Scotland even passed a law mandating that every home contain a copy of the Geneva Bible. And despite Shakespeare’s long association with the King James Version, the translation he used was actually the Geneva Bible.

The Geneva Bible also had a lasting influence on what later became the most popular English Bible translation—the King James Version. Although King James, in 1604, called the Geneva Bible the worst of all Bibles (one of the reasons he authorized the new translation that now bears his name), C. Butterworth has argued that 19% of the wording of the King James Version comes from the Geneva Bible.

How did the Geneva Bible get so popular?

What made the Geneva Bible so popular in Protestant circles was the notes. In fact, it’s not too much of an exaggeration to say that the Geneva Bible was the original study Bible of English-speaking Reformers.

The notes are massive—roughly 300,000 words, approximately one-third of the length of the Bible text itself.

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