Textus Receptus Bibles
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
| 28:1 | The siluer surely hath his veyne, and ye gold his place, where they take it. |
| 28:2 | Yron is taken out of the dust, and brasse is molten out of the stone. |
| 28:3 | God putteth an end to darkenesse, and he tryeth the perfection of all things: he setteth a bond of darkenesse, and of the shadowe of death. |
| 28:4 | The flood breaketh out against the inhabitant, and the waters forgotten of the foote, being higher then man, are gone away. |
| 28:5 | Out of the same earth commeth bread, and vnder it, as it were fire is turned vp. |
| 28:6 | The stones thereof are a place of saphirs, and the dust of it is golde. |
| 28:7 | There is a path which no foule hath knowen, neyther hath the kites eye seene it. |
| 28:8 | The lyons whelpes haue not walked it, nor the lyon passed thereby. |
| 28:9 | He putteth his hand vpon the rockes, and ouerthroweth the mountaines by the rootes. |
| 28:10 | He breaketh riuers in the rockes, and his eye seeth euery precious thing. |
| 28:11 | He bindeth the floods, that they doe not ouerflowe, and the thing that is hid, bringeth he to light. |
| 28:12 | But where is wisdome found? and where is the place of vnderstanding? |
| 28:13 | Man knoweth not the price thereof: for it is not found in the land of the liuing. |
| 28:14 | The depth sayth, It is not in mee: the sea also sayth, It is not with me. |
| 28:15 | Golde shall not be giuen for it, neyther shall siluer be weighed for the price thereof. |
| 28:16 | It shall not be valued with the wedge of golde of Ophir, nor with the precious onix, nor the saphir. |
| 28:17 | The golde nor the chrystall shall be equall vnto it, nor the exchange shalbe for plate of fine golde. |
| 28:18 | No mention shall be made of coral, nor of the gabish: for wisedome is more precious then pearles. |
| 28:19 | The Topaz of Ethiopia shall not be equall vnto it, neither shall it be valued with the wedge of pure gold. |
| 28:20 | Whence then commeth wisedome? and where is the place of vnderstanding, |
| 28:21 | Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all the liuing, and is hid from the foules of the heauen? |
| 28:22 | Destruction and death say, We haue heard the fame thereof with our eares. |
| 28:23 | But God vnderstandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof. |
| 28:24 | For he beholdeth the endes of the world, and seeth all that is vnder heauen, |
| 28:25 | To make the weight of the windes, and to weigh the waters by measure. |
| 28:26 | When he made a decree for the rayne, and a way for the lightening of the thunders, |
| 28:27 | Then did he see it, and counted it: he prepared it and also considered it. |
| 28:28 | And vnto man he said, Behold, the feare of the Lord is wisedome, and to depart from euil is vnderstanding. |
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
The Geneva Bible is one of the most influential and historically significant translations of the Bible into English, preceding the King James translation by 51 years. It was the primary Bible of 16th century Protestantism and was the Bible used by William Shakespeare, Oliver Cromwell, John Knox, John Donne, and John Bunyan. The language of the Geneva Bible was more forceful and vigorous and because of this, most readers strongly preferred this version at the time.
The Geneva Bible was produced by a group of English scholars who, fleeing from the reign of Queen Mary, had found refuge in Switzerland. During the reign of Queen Mary, no Bibles were printed in England, the English Bible was no longer used in churches and English Bibles already in churches were removed and burned. Mary was determined to return Britain to Roman Catholicism.
The first English Protestant to die during Mary's turbulent reign was John Rogers in 1555, who had been the editor of the Matthews Bible. At this time, hundreds of Protestants left England and headed for Geneva, a city which under the leadership of Calvin, had become the intellectual and spiritual capital of European Protestants.
One of these exiles was William Whittingham, a fellow of Christ Church at Oxford University, who had been a diplomat, a courtier, was much traveled and skilled in many languages including Greek and Hebrew. He eventually succeeded John Knox as the minister of the English congregation in Geneva. Whittingham went on to publish the 1560 Geneva Bible.
This version is significant because, it came with a variety of scriptural study guides and aids, which included verse citations that allow the reader to cross-reference one verse with numerous relevant verses in the rest of the Bible, introductions to each book of the Bible that acted to summarize all of the material that each book would cover, maps, tables, woodcut illustrations, indices, as well as other included features, all of which would eventually lead to the reputation of the Geneva Bible as history's very first study Bible.