Geneva Bible 1599

Rating:
Summary: a gem!
Review: the old print takes some getting used to, but the side notes are invaluable! This is the one Bible I turn to most!

Rating:
Summary: a gem!
Review: the old print takes some getting used to, but the side notes are invaluable! This is the one Bible I turn to most!

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful work
Review: This is a Bible I refer to more and more often. As a lay pastor and seminary student, I find the text itself, the notes in the margins, and the metrical Psalms in the back all to be invaluable.

One needs to keep in mind that it is reproduced in the original typeface (long "s" that looks like an "f", "u" is a "v", "v" is a "u", "vv" is a "w", &c.) and the spelling is interesting to say the least. However, this was THE Bible in early America until about 1750 and the popular Bible in England at least until after the English Civil War. It is also the Bible used by Shakespeare in his references.

This is a treasure of a book and a good look at how the Bible and worship (the metrical Psalms were sung in church services) were seen at the turn of the 17th century.

Rating:
Summary: Fair copy of the original
Review: This is a good photocopy of the 1599 Geneva bible. The type style and spelling are original to the period which makes reading this version difficult for the average student. However, the margin notes are excellent and are vital to understanding reformed theology.

Rating:
Summary: Great Bible; awful preface
Review: This is a well made and readable reprint of the 1599 edition of the Geneva Bible. Instead of the 1560 commentary on Revelation, it has the rather vehement and anti-Catholic, but historically interesting. commentary of Junius on that book. The Apocrypha are listed on the table of contents, but were apparently not reproduced, either in the facsimile or in the edition this is copied from.

This Bible would be interesting and useful to people interested in the history of Protestant thought in England, and students of the literature of the period.

The edition is flawed, though, by the [...] prefaces added by the publisher. They seem to have little to do with this edition of the Bible or its historical significance. Indeed, they seem to misconstrue the doctrine of Grace that is expounded in the pages of the Bible itself. They are instead filled with amateur lawyering, bizarre political commentary, paranoid conspiracy theories, and attacks on the Authorized Version based on the character of King James [who, of course, didn't write it]. The prefaces are so disturbing that you may have qualms about supporting the operation responsible for this reprint.
Great Bible. Lousy introduction. -- This review refers to a previous edition.