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The Calvinist orientation of this translation has led many to assert that it was the favored Bible among puritans in England and New England, but an examination of Bible ownership and the actual words cited in sermons and recorded in sermon notes would indicate that this is an exaggeration.
William Bradley, a KJV-only author, wrote: “The translators changed virtually nothing from William Tyndale’s New Testament in the New Testament of the Geneva Bible” (Purified Seven Times, p. 87). Mickey Carter noted that the Geneva “differs from the King James Version only in differing English renderings of the same Greek texts” (Things That Are Different, p. 48). Carter acknowledged that "the Geneva Bible was hated by the Catholic Church" (Ibid.). Carter maintained that the Geneva Bible “came from the same source” as the KJV and that it is “trustworthy” (p. 121). Carter indicated that “there were no doctrinal differences” between the Geneva and the KJV (p. 125). Carter asserted that the Geneva Bible “is from the same manuscripts as the King James” (Revival Fires, Sept., 1996, p. 17). Chester Murray, another KJV-only advocate, claimed: "There is not one difference suggested in the Geneva and the KJ Bible" (Authorized KJB Defended, p. 160). Gail Riplinger maintained that the earlier English Bibles such as Tyndale's and the Geneva are "practically identical to the KJV" (Language of the KJB, p. 5). Riplinger also wrote: “The Geneva text is almost identical to the KJV” (In Awe of thy Word, p. 566). Riplinger asserted that “generally speaking, the early English Bibles are the same” (p. 130). Riplinger indicated that those previous early English Bibles “were no less perfect, pure, and true than the KJB” (Hidden History of the English Scriptures, p. 59). Riplinger stated that the Geneva “follows the traditional text that underlies the King James Version” (Which Bible, p. 51). Riplinger described the English translation in the 1599 Nuremberg Polyglot which was the Geneva Bible as “pure” and as “the Bible before the KJV of 1611” (In Awe of Thy Word, pp. 41, 1048, 1052-1108). H. D. Williams identified the Geneva Bible as being “based on the Received Texts of the original languages of the Bible” (Word-for-Word Translating, p. 238). D. A. Waite maintained that “the Geneva Bible (1557-60) used the Received Text” (Defending the KJB, p. 48). David Cloud suggested that the earlier English versions such as the Geneva Bible “differed only slightly from the King James Bible” (Bible Version Question/Answer, p. 92). Cloud described both the Geneva and the KJV as being editions of Tyndale’s (Faith, p. 510). Cloud stated that the predecessors of the KJV were "the same basic Bibles." He wrote: "They were based upon the same Greek text and employed the same type of translation methodology" (For Love of the Bible, p. 48). David Loughran, a KJV-only author, wrote: “The Geneva Bible is a true ‘version’ having been translated from the original Hebrew and Greek throughout” (Bible Versions, p. 11). In his book edited by D. A. Waite, H. D. Williams listed the Geneva Bible as a “literal, verbal plenary translation” (Word-for-Word, p. 121). Robert Sargent referred to it as “a very good translation” (English Bible, p. 197). Peter Ruckman included the Geneva Bible on his good tree that is described at the bottom of the page as “the one, true, infallible, God-breathed Bible” (Bible Babel, p. 82). Ruckman wrote: “I recommend … the Geneva Bible” (Scholarship Only Controversy, p. 1). Ruckman asserted that “we will not condemn them” [referring to pre-1611 English Bibles including the Geneva Bible] (Bible Babel, p. 2). Ruckman described the Geneva Bible as “a revision of Tyndale” and “the most anti-Catholic translation to date” (Biblical Scholarship, pp. 158, 157).
No, not even for a TR-referred reader. The 1560 Geneva Bible (although some editions may have been printed into the mid-1600s) was actually a translation product of the mid-1500s. The scholarship behind the AV1611 had significantly advanced over a half-century. I have read them both, and I would say that the KJV is generally the better translation.So it would appear that you would agree with me that IF you held to the superiority of the TR contarsted with the CT, which I do not hold to myself, than one would conclude that the Geneva Bible has as much validity to being THE Bible for today as ole KJV?
No, not even for a TR-referred reader. The 1560 Geneva Bible (although some editions may have been printed into the mid-1600s) was actually a translation product of the mid-1500s. The scholarship behind the AV1611 had significantly advanced over a half-century. I have read them both, and I would say that the KJV is generally the better translation.
The scholarship behind the AV1611 had significantly advanced over a half-century. I have read them both, and I would say that the KJV is generally the better translation.
That may be true overall or generally, but it is not true concerning every rendering of every word of every verse. In at least some places, the 1560 Geneva Bible has a clearer, better, or more accurate rendering than the KJV when compared to the preserved Scriptures in the original languages. In some places the KJV kept the more archaic and less clear renderings of the Bishops' Bible where the Geneva Bible already had clearer and more up-to-date English.
In 1772, David Durell (Hebrew scholar and friend of Benjamin Blayney and who assisted Blayney in the making of the 1769 edition) maintained that “it [the KJV] does not exhibit in many places the sense of the text so exactly as the version of 1599 [the Geneva]“ (Critical Remarks on the Books, p. vi). Scrivener noted that “even King James’s revisers sometimes retain renderings of the Bishops’ Bible, when they are decidedly inferior to that of the Geneva New Testament” (Supplement, I, p. 94). In 1827, Baptist Samuel Green asserted that “some learned men speak highly of this copy [the Geneva] of the English Scriptures, and do not hesitate to declare, that it is at least equal to that of King James’s translators” (Miscellanies, p. 256).
One evidence that would indicate and affirm that some renderings of the Geneva Bible are better or more accurate is the fact that the NKJV translators ended up agreeing with them in a good number of cases.
I just wish we could get a good quality version of the 1560 w/o modern spellings.
Hendrickson Publishers published a facimile edition of the 1560 Geneva Bible in 2007 without modern spellings that is still available. The Geneva Bible in print today with modern spellings is the 1599 edition.