When the Pilgrims arrived in America in 1620, they brought along supplies, a consuming passion to advance the Kingdom of Christ, a bright hope for the future, and the Word of God. Clearly, their most precious cargo was the Bible. Have you ever wondered what version of the Bible the Pilgrims brought to America on the Mayflower? Believe it or not, it was not the King James Version of 1611. It was actually the 1599 Geneva Bible - a forgotten yet priceless treasure. The Geneva Bible, printed over 200 times between 1560 and 1644, was the most widely read and influential English Bible of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This superb translation was the product of the best Protestant scholars of the day and became the Bible of choice for many of the greatest writers, thinkers, and historical figures of that time. Men such as Shakespeare, John Bunyan, and John Milton used the Geneva Bible, and it was reflected in their writings. During the English Civil War, Oliver Cromwell issued a pamphlet containing excerpts from the Geneva Bible to his troops. William Bradford cited the Geneva Bible in his book Of Plymouth Plantation. The Geneva Bible is unique among all other Bibles. It was the first Bible to use chapters and numbered verses and became the most popular version of its time because of the extensive marginal notes. These notes, written by Reformation leaders such as John Calvin, John Knox, Miles Coverdale, William Whittingham, Anthony Gilby, and others, were included to explain and interpret the scriptures for the common people. For nearly half a century these notes helped the people of England, Scotland, and Ireland understand the Bible and true liberty. King James despised the Geneva Bible because he considered the notes on key political texts to be seditious and a threat to his authority. Unlike the King James Version, the Geneva Bible was not authorized by the government. It was truly a Bible by the people and for the people. You can see why this remarkable version with its profound marginal notes played a key role in the formation of the American Republic. Sadly, 407 years after its original publication, this wonderful version of the Bible has been nearly forgotten. The only complete version available today is a large, cumbersome, and difficult-to-read facsimile edition. A facsimile edition contains pictures of the original pages. The small print and the older English letters and spellings make it nearly impossible to read or study. If the 1599 Geneva Bible is to survive the passing of time and be remembered for generations to come, it must be resurrected and redistributed. Features: # Word-for-word accuracy with the 1599 Geneva Bible # Original cross references # Modern spelling # Original study notes by Reformers # Old English Glossary # Easy-to-read standard size print # 6.5 x 9.5 # FREE CD-ROM which contains searchable, printable PDFs of the Geneva Bible, plus the Apocryphal Books and Metrical Psalms
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24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
great idea, poor execution,
This review is from: 1599 Geneva Bible Bonded Leather Edition (Leather Bound)
The thought of updating the typeface for the 1599 Geneva Bible and providing an easily readable copy of the original is a great idea. I was truly excited to purchase a copy when it first came out. The execution of the idea, sadly, was very poor.
My first copy (black leather bound) had issues with the binding and in some of the pages it appeared that the type had been smudged. I sent it back with my comments on what was wrong. Some time later I received a second copy. The binding issue was better but not fully corrected. It seems that the piece of leather they used was too short in the horizontal direction to truly wrap the book. In addition there were pages that this time were printed very light so that it makes it difficult to read because the poor contrast. I kept this copy because a CD with the book in PDF form came with it and I use that for reference, but the printed copy is just too poor for regular reading. If they had only chosen a better publisher to print it, this could have been a really great Bible that I would heartily recommend purchasing. But alas such is NOT the case!!! Michael Glidewell
50 of 63 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Nice to finally have a soft leather version in modern typeface, but flawed in many ways.,
By RWM (Portage, MI) - See all my reviews
This review is from: 1599 Geneva Bible Bonded Leather Edition (Leather Bound)
It's wonderful to finally have a genuine Geneva Bible reprinted in modern typeface and leather binding that is actually portable. It is my favorite Bible version and I've owned quite a few different reprints of this Bible over the years in various formats. Of the versions that have been reprinted, this is the most portable and complete version available with the notes of the Genevan Reformers included. The leather is supple and soft (mine is a limited edition calfskin version), and the type is dark on white india paper and very easy on the eyes.
However, as great (and historic) as the reprinting of this classic work is, there are a few things that keep it from being as perfect as it could have been: 1) It has a cross on the cover (limited calfskin edition, not sure about hardcover). But not only that, it is a Celtic cross, which legend tells us was a blending of the Roman Catholic cross and the Solar Cross, introduced by Saint Columba in order to help pagans ease their way into Christianity by linking the symbol of the cross with the symbol of their sun-god Taranis. A variation of this cross has since been adopted by neo-facists in Europe. So what's this doing on my 1599 Geneva Bible? The Reformers would be turning over in their graves. They fought hard to rid the church of religious icons such as these. A cross is simply out of place on the Bible of the Reformers and Puritans and goes against the grain of what they taught and practiced. Bad choice. Very bad choice. Guess I need a cover to hide the cross which sort of defeats the purpose of a soft, supple calfskin leather cover. What's worse on my Bible is that the cross isn't centered on the front. It's about 1 cm to the right of center, and slightly crooked. I would have preferred nothing at all on the cover instead of a crooked Celtic cross. And I'm Scottish! 2) The notes, while great, are very difficult to reference. In the original Geneva Bible, the editors used lowercase letters of the alphabet, from a to z, to indicate a note; and the note was in the margin near the verse so you didn't lose your place in the text. It is very easy in an original Geneva Bible to glance at the superscript reference letter, scan for that letter in the margin next to the verse, and read the note for that reference. After reading the note, which was sometimes long, you could glance back at the text, and continue where you left off. Simple. Unfortunately, in this reprint the publisher opted to put the notes at the bottom of the page, broken down by chapter/verse, using reference numbers within each verse that restart from 1 each time within each verse. So you have some thirty something superscript number 1's within the biblical text on each page of this Bible. So, for example, if you're reading Hosea 7:1, in order to read the reference note for this, you have to make a mental note of the chapter and verse you are on, as well as the superscript reference number for this note, then scan the bottom of the page until you find the corresponding chapter and verse, find the corresponding number within that chapter and verse, and then read the note. Then you have to find where you left off in the text above...let's see...where's note 1...oh yes, there are 30 of these little 1's throughout the text! It's even worse if there are two identical verse numbers from two different chapters on the same page...I find myself inadvertently reading the note for the wrong chapter/verse combination. The note referencing clearly wasn't thought through in this release, and it's a shame because it really is a hindrance to Bible study by causing you to memorize 3 things, chapter, verse, and annotation number, before you can find and read the note. By then your mind has probably wandered from the text. It may seem like not such a big deal, but in actual practice, it's very cumbersome and unintuitive. In the original Geneva, you only had to remember one letter, and once you finished, you could use that letter to find your spot back in the main text. Simple and effective, and shows that the Reformers were concerned with the details. 3) I bought the limited edition calfskin leather version (only 500 hand-numbered volumes were produced). The original color appeared black in the original advertisement so I was excited to be getting this reissue in black calfskin leather. However, when it finally arrived, I was surprised to find that they released it in an ugly puke-tan leather with a large gold cross emblazoned on the front. I fully expected it to be black (and cross-less) based on the photos and would have preferred it to remain that way. 4) I'm extremely concerned about the integrity of the source text that was used for this version, as well as the proofreading that was done before publishing this Bible. It appears they rushed to publish it, errors and all. I've only read 6 chapters so far and already found 3 mistakes: 1) In Luke 15:30 this version has "devoured thy good with harlots" but the original 1599 Geneva Bible that I own says "devoured thy goods with harlots", which makes more sense. If you look at digitized copies of the Geneva Bible online, they contain the same error. Over the years I've come across several errors in the standard digitized versions of the Geneva Bible, so I fear that these same errors have been replicated in this release. It is likely that Tolle Lege used the extant digitized 1599 text as a base text without checking whether that text was indeed true to the original. But the next error I found boggles my mind. 2) In 2 Peter 3:16 this version has "among the which some things are hard to be understand..." whereas the original 1599 Geneva (both online and in the copies I own) has "among the which some things are hard to be understood...". The word "understand" doesn't even make sense, and how this could have slipped past a proofreader is beyond me. 3) In 1 John 2:5 this version has "hereby we know that ye are in him" but the original 1599 Geneva Bible says "hereby we know that we are in him." Big difference in the meaning between these two verses. This version implies that we can know whether other people are saved or not. This error is not in the 1599 Geneva version I own, or the versions online, only in this version. I remember having the same issues with the Modern King James version that was released in the early 90's. It was riddled with errors like "Cod" instead of "God" making it basically useless since it couldn't be trusted. I guess it goes to show that you can't rely on computer software to proofread copy and grammar. This is a major concern and from what I've seen so far in only 6 chapters, it's not looking very promising as an accurate copy of the original Geneva Bible. 5) After two days of owning it my Bible is already falling apart (limited calfskin version). The glue that holds the vinyl to the leather front cover is already coming apart...about an inch and a half at the corner...and I've hardly used it. This is unacceptable in a Bible at any price, let alone $300. I'm not sure if the quality of the hardcover is similar to the calfskin version. This is the most compact Geneva Bible you can hope to find on the market today. And that's why it's unfortunate there are so many issues with it. Initially I gave this Bible a 5 star rating, but after 2 days of owning it, I have to retract my rating. At the most I'd give it 3 stars, but due to the textual and grammatical errors, I simply cannot recommend it. I was going to buy 4 other copies for members of my family, but now there's no way I will. I suggest holding out until Tolle Lege comes out with a second edition in 2007 - or even the third edition. They've started to fix the grammatical errors and list them on their site - hopefully they'll also fix the quality control issues.
26 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Waited so long...,
By
This review is from: 1599 Geneva Bible Bonded Leather Edition (Leather Bound)
having waited for decades, asking publishers to consider this work, I rejoice that this wonderful edition is now published in easy-to read English. As much as I love my facsimile editions, it is challenging to get the kids to read them, as well as the faded, but glorious reformed comments in the Bible.
I do take to task the other reviewer who made his 5 points about the Bible, with point 5 (the least of all?) being that he paid $300 for a Bible that fell apart in 2 days. Would you think that it would be best to contact the seller for a refund or an exchange rather than give it a poor review, knowing that this is likely a rare exception? Inside the book we are told to do unto others as we would have them do unto us. If I am the publisher, I would want to know IMMEDIATELY if there is a problem and rectify it. But to make a review with 80% of it about typos or the beautiful Celtic cross (don't trust legends!) and then to add a short paragraph about the actually falling apart of a $300 Bible is indeed strange, and perhaps, telling. If the reviewer has an issue with something about this publication, why not simply state that? Why would someone even bother to look for typos if a $300 book literally fell apart in two days if he did not have an agenda? I do not consider this very fair. I have waited for a long time for a publication like this, and plan on getting copies for my children, and other relatives as finances allow. I am very grateful for the work put into this publication as I love the 1599 and the 1560 editions, and looked forward to the day when they would be reproduced in this manner. With the constellation of bibles produced ("the new teenager's bible", the "promise keeper bible" the "young woman's bible", "the middle-aged man's bible", the "I don't get along with my parents bible") it is refreshing to have such a worthy translation made so legible in long-lasting leather. Many thanks to the publishers and sellers!
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