/lit/ - Literature

>>20911661
>The Geneva Bible was the English bible until the KJV was enforced by law
Geneva Bible is good, but the 1611 translation wasn't forced by law, people just chose it willingly. There was actually a transition period until roughly the 1640s where people used either, because the early prints made by Robert Barker were unpopular and ridden with typos in the printing plates. When I say the people used it, I mean as their household bible (the Pulpit bibles were mandated, with the XL tome sized ones literally chained to it so it couldn't be taken out).

Basically, the unofficial (good) translations were the Tyndale, Coverdale, Matthew and Geneva Bible (1560, revised 1599), and the official ones were the Great Bible, the Bishop's Bible (1568) and lastly the 1611 "Authorized Version."

On average, The Geneva Bible and Bishop's Bible are both very similar to the Authorized King James, but they had marginal notes that either side (royalist, puritan) didn't like. The 1611 translation text is sort of like a cross of these two, with updates where needed due to Beza's latest Greek TR (of 1598) and some other improved sources. But although it is a new translation, it's still very similar in no small part due to the existence of these earlier translations. The Geneva and the 1611 both had some pretty interesting footnotes.

The only problem with the Geneva Bible for practical purposes is that it uses slightly earlier form of English, and it never received any kind of update after English was standardized in the 18th century. The KJV was overhauled in its spelling format in the 1769 revision, which is much closer to what we use today than the 1611. For instance, the word "be" was alternatively spelled "bee" 1347 times in the 1611 edition. While in the 1769 edition, the word "bee" only occurs in reference to the animal. So, the KJV is much less difficult to read than the Geneva Bible, which was last updated in 1599.

Also just as a piece of trivia, the Geneva Bible actually was mandated by law at one point. Since John Knox had worked on it, there was a law passed in Scotland in the year 1579 requiring every household with the means, to own one.

The NASB, ESV and NET in their various editions remove or modify about 7% of the New Testament because they're from the modern critical text. So not a good source of what the text originally says. This is unlike the above discussed translations.