PrincipledMom™

We have been studying about the Geneva Bible this week in HisStory. When we were discussing it Princess S said, "This is really fun!" Go figure! She loves hands-on stuff (like every other kid on the planet). I'm just glad she enjoyed it.

You can see scans of the entire Geneva Bible online here. Princess G liked reading it because it was so different that what she's used to. She was surprisingly good at reading it too!

The Geneva Bible sprang from persecution in England. Bloody Mary banned the printing of English scriptures, so many Reformers fled to Geneva. There, among contemporary scholars like Calvin and Foxe, they created this version of the Bible. More on the history of the text can be found in nice, concise form here.

We discussed the impact of the Geneva Bible on us in America today and here's the paragraph she wrote about it:
The Pilgrims used this Bible. They got their idea for government from the Bible and passed them down to the Founding Fathers. This Bible was important in our country's birth.
We talked about how this Bible is important to her because there would be no America without it. The Bible in the hands of the people always brings liberty. God's Providence allowed Scriptures to be brought to America's shores and into our homes.
"For forty years after the publication of the King James Bible, the Geneva Bible continued to be the Bible of the home."
This version was beloved by the Pilgrims, the founding fathers and even the Army (Oliver Cromwell used excerpts for the soldiers' pocket Bibles). Other interesting facts about it:

• it was the first Bible to break the text into verses
• it was the first study Bible, with extensive notes
• it was quoted by Shakespeare
• it's about 90% the same text as Tyndale's 1384 version from the original Greek and Hebrew.
• it was printed in Roman typeface for easy (?) reading
• the King James version is about 90% the same text as this version

...and why is it called "the Breeches Bible?" See the Geneva Bible Gen. 3:7.

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