How Did the Geneva Bible Change Christianity?

The Geneva Bible plays a key part in Bible translation history. The first written translation of the entire Bible was produced under the influence of John Wycliffe in 1384. Following works by Martin Luther and William Tyndale and the Great Bible by Miles Coverdale, Stephen Nichols tells us, “The next landmark in the history of the English Bible came in 1560 with the publication of the Geneva Bible.”

Since the Geneva Bible appeared, the Bible’s reach has increased to become a global phenomenon. According to the Wycliffe Global Alliance, as of 2023, the complete written Bible is available in 736 languages (approximately 10% of known languages), with the New Testament accessible to 1658 languages and portions of the Bible open to 1264 tongues.

So what made the Geneva Bible a landmark in this impressive history?

What Came Before the Geneva Bible?

We should look at the earlier versions to more fully understand the great changes brought by the Geneva Bible.

The early church had some access to Hebrew manuscripts of the Old Testament but relied a great deal on the Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Old Testament. The New Testament books were collected in various forms, but it was rare for a church to have two complete testaments collected together in the same language.

In the fifth century, Pope Damascus commissioned Jerome to produce a complete Bible in Latin to support the Roman Catholic church’s common doctrine. What ensued was the Vulgate. The Vulgate translation was the first to utilize topical headings and sections, and many of Jerome’s Latin terms have been embraced by other translations—terms such as salvation, justification, and even the term Scripture, the synonym we use for the Bible’s text.

John Wycliffe influenced the first hand-written translation of the whole Bible in the fourteenth-century British Isles. His version was translated from Vulgate into Middle English so the common people could understand it. That act led to Wycliffe being excommunicated and his bones being posthumously burned because he disobeyed the papal authorities who had deemed the common people could not comprehend Scripture without church leaders’ help.

William Tyndale followed in the 1530s. He studied the original biblical languages (Hebrew and Greek) and investigated the Septuagint and the Vulgate to help produce his version of the Bible. A key shift was that he worked after Johannes Gutenberg had produced a life-changing invention: the printing press. With typesetting technology, churches no longer needed to wait long to receive hand-written copies, which were in limited supply. Unfortunately, the controversy affecting Wycliffe increased: church authorities influenced the government to write a law that prohibited publishing the Bible without their consent. Tyndale was arrested for illegally translating the Bible and died by strangulation, followed by burning at the stake. His crime? Making the Scriptures available to the common folk.

What Made the Geneva Bible Different from Earlier Bible Translations?

The Geneva Bible differs from the earlier translations in that:

• Its publishers wanted it to be available to the masses. People who could not afford a complete Geneva Bible could purchase the separately published New Testament or Psalms.
• A group wrote it of scholars and not one individual.
• It contained many more marginal (study) notes than previous versions.
• It was the first Bible to use chapter and verse divisions.
• It used an easily read font (Roman), a change from the previous Gothic font.
• Most crucially, it was the first English Bible entirely translated from the original languages in which it was written.

The Dunham Bible Museum notes other impressive changes, including the fact that the Geneva Bible contained maps, synopses of each book, chapter summaries, subject headers, and “added italicized words for words not in the original Greek or Hebrew but needed for English understanding.”

How Did the Protestant Reformation Inform the Geneva Bible?

The Geneva Bible was magnificent for its time. It was also controversial.

As alluded to earlier when discussing Wycliffe and Tyndale, the Protestant Reformation greatly influenced the Geneva Bible. The movement began in the sixteenth century when German monk Martin Luther advocated for a return to biblical teachings and away from some church traditions. Part of the Reformers’ mission to get back to a biblical foundation was to bring the whole of the Bible to as many people as possible.

They faced huge opposition from existing church authorities who feared a rebellion or a movement away from their doctrines. In the Geneva Bible’s case, that opposition inspired the translation itself.

When Mary Tudor ascended the English throne in 1553, she attempted to reinstate the Roman Catholic faith. Her anti-Protestant stance earned the title “Bloody Mary” because she outlawed the Protestant faith and had many Reformers thrown into prison and martyred. Many Protestant leaders, including John Knox and William Whittingham, fled to Geneva, Switzerland. Hence, the Geneva Bible was the first to be partially borne out of the threat of prison and martyrdom.

Reformer John Calvin met the exiled leaders in Switzerland and suggested the men publish a Bible. Stephen Nichols reports, “Calvin wasn’t much for idle hands. Florentine jewelers who had converted to Protestantism were also among the exiles who came to Geneva. Most of their prior work revolved around saint’ statues, rosaries, and the like. They needed something new to do. Calvin suggested they make watches. The rest is (watchmaking) history. So, too, the British scholars who came to Geneva needed to work. Calvin suggested they publish a Bible. The rest is English Bible history.”

In their midst were scholars of Hebrew and Greek, gifted, scholarly men, and brave, excellent publishers.

By the time the Geneva Bible was published in 1560, Mary Tudor no longer ruled England, but other authorities were concerned about its impact. Dr. Roger Nicole notes how the Geneva Bible was “Written in a Puritanic spirit” with wording that “angered the royal family and some of the bishops of the Anglican Church.” Puritanism was a Christian movement that reacted against Anglicanism’s authority structure, so the Puritan tone made the Geneva Bible subversive for its time. While Anglican leaders commissioned the Bishops’ Bible to counteract the Geneva Bible, it was too late. The Geneva Bible outsold all other translations for 80 years.

How Did the Geneva Bible Influence Later Bible Translations?

Because of its annotations, the Geneva Bible can be called the first study Bible. It paved the way for the proliferation of study Bibles with many notes to help beginner and more advanced Bible students.

When King James I looked into the Geneva Bible, he did not care for its margin notes. Consequently, he founded and assembled biblical scholars to produce and publish the 1611 New Authorized Version, better known today as the King James Bible. Despite his objections, the language and structure of the Geneva Bible influenced the King James Bible in many ways.

Why Does the Geneva Bible Matter Today?

The Geneva Bible’s influence on other translations makes it important by itself. But it also transformed society. The Dunham Bible Museum explains, “With the widespread availability of the Geneva Bible, the Bible became the one book familiar to every Englishman. England became a people of a book—the Bible. The Bible was the literature of the people, molding their speech, shaping their language, permeating their thoughts, and changing the entire moral character of the nation. As the Bible was read and discussed, literacy and education grew among all classes of both men and women.”

We can still see the influence of the Geneva Bible today. It was employed by Shakespeare, John Bunyan, and John Milton. It came with the Puritans and Pilgrims who settled Jamestown and Plymouth, influencing American society in many ways.

The road to getting God’s Word into the hands of common folk has been sprinkled with banishment and blood. As we consider this translation, we ought to note what happened to the faithful men who risked and gave their lives to get the Word of God into the hands of ordinary people.

Photo Credit:©GettyImages/Volodymyr Zakharov

Lisa Loraine Baker is the multiple award-winning author of Someplace to be Somebody. She writes fiction and nonfiction. In addition to writing for the Salem Web Network, Lisa serves as a Word Weavers’ mentor and is part of a critique group. She also is a member of BRRC. Lisa and her husband, Stephen, a pastor, live in a small Ohio village with their crazy cat, Lewis. 

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