In his plays, William Shakespeare quoted hundreds of times from the Geneva Bible.

Also called the "Breeches Bible" (because it tells of Adam and Eve sewing "breeches" for themselves of fig leaves), the Geneva Bible is the only Bible ever able to outsell and exceed the popularity of the King James Bible, as it did in the early 1600's until its printing ceased in 1644.

In the 33 years after the issuing of the Authorized Version, the Geneva Bible had passed through 140 editions and become the "household" Bible.

Protestant Reformation Bible

The "Bible of the Protestant Reformation" and the Bible of the Puritans and Pilgrims. It was the first Bible to arrive in America (brought over on the Mayflower). The Geneva Bible is the Bible upon which America was founded. As you can imagine, most early American colonists, who were fleeing the religious oppression of the Anglican (Catholic) Church of England, wanted nothing to do with the King James Bible of the Anglican Church!

Textually, the Geneva Bible offered a number of radical changes:

• The first Bible in English to add numbered verses to each chapter of scripture (except for Whittingham's "simple" Bible).

• The first Bible to introduce easier-to-read Roman-style type rather than the Gothic Blackletter type which had been used exclusively in earlier Bibles.

• The first study Bible with extensive commentary notes in the margins.

In one of the greatest ironies of history, Protestants of all denominations today embrace the King James Version of the Bible (which reads 90% the same as the Geneva), even though the King James Version is not a Protestant Bible, but Catholic/Anglican/Church of England! Most Protestants have never even heard of the Bible of their own heritage: the Geneva Bible.

This Bible became the Bible of the Commonwealth army. The soldiers did not carry a full Bible, but rather a reader that contained quotations from the Geneva Bible. Printed in Scotland in 1679, the Geneva Bible was made a required item in every home having a certain income, per Parliament. These Bibles were to be marked with the owner's name to assure that neighbors didn't borrow them just long enough to satisfy John Williamson, the inspector!

John Calvin, John Knox, Myles Coverdale, John Foxe, and other English reformers/exiles produced the work in ever-neutral Geneva, Switzerland. Roman Catholic Queen "Bloody" Mary of England would not tolerate the Protestant Geneva Bible, which proclaimed the Pope an "antichrist" in its commentary notes.