Geneva Bible
The Geneva Bible is one of the most historically significant translations of the Bible into English, preceding the King James Version by 51 years. It was the primary Bible of 16th-century English Protestantism and was used by William Shakespeare, Oliver Cromwell, John Knox, John Donne, and John Bunyan, author of "The Pilgrim's Progress" (1678). It was one of the Bibles taken to America on the "Mayflower". (Pilgrim Hall Museum has collected several Bibles of "Mayflower" passengers.) The Geneva Bible was used by many English Dissenters, and it was still respected by Oliver Cromwell's soldiers at the time of the English Civil War, in the booklet "Cromwell's Soldiers' Pocket Bible".

This version of the Bible is significant because, for the first time, a mechanically printed, mass-produced Bible was made available directly to the general public which came with a variety of scriptural study guides and aids (collectively called an apparatus), 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 and indices.

Because the language of the Geneva Bible was more forceful and vigorous, most readers strongly preferred this version to the Great Bible. In the words of Cleland Boyd McAfee, "it drove the Great Bible off the field by sheer power of excellence".
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translations
Concept
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Bible
Concept
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King James Version
MEDIA
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Protestantism
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William Shakespeare
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Oliver Cromwell
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John Knox
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John Donne
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John Bunyan
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The Pilgrim's Progress
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Mayflower
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Pilgrim Hall Museum
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English Dissenters
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Oliver Cromwell
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English Civil War
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Cromwell's Soldiers' Pocket Bible
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woodcut illustrations
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Great Bible
ORG
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Cleland Boyd McAfee
PER
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Geneva Bible
ORG
Q1502139
Geneva Bible
ORG
Q1502139
Geneva Bible
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