Bishops’ Bible: A Response To Geneva
The Church of England recognized the scholarship and caliber of the Geneva Bibles. Many clergymen objected to the study notes it included, particularly the promotion of elder-led church government. Furthermore, the accuracy of translation in the Geneva version highlighted some translation errors in the Great Bible. In response, Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, led a project to update the Great Bible. Scripture was divided into sections and distributed to Anglican scholars, mostly Bishops (hence the name), who were to independently review and update their portion. Parker compiled these changes into the Bishops’ Bible.
The Bishop’s Bible - Beautiful But Rushed
The Bishops’ Bible is beautiful in appearance. It contains over 120 elaborate woodblock illustrations, fresh title pages with portraits, and four maps. This Bible was an elephant folio, over 1 inch larger than the Great Bible, intended to be read from the pulpit. Parker’s intention was to outshine the Geneva Bible. Unfortunately, the work was rushed, resulting in an inferior translation. David Daniel notes that “their Hebrew and Greek were not good enough. When they made changes, they were simply botching what already existed.” In fact, two of the Bishops assigned to translate the Apocrypha made no changes to the text at all. This section of Scripture is identical in the Great Bible as it is in the Bishops’ Bible.
The general title page to the Bishops’ Bible with the portrait of the queen. The text below is Romans 1:6, ‘I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believeth.’ Strangely enough, the quote to introduce the English translation is in Latin.
The Bishops’ Bible - A Printing Monopoly
Through the creation of the Bishops’ Bible, Richard Jugge was awarded a monopoly for printing Bibles in England in order to recoup his initial investment. This exclusive patent would be passed down to the Barker family. They retained it for almost 100 years, printing Bishops’, Geneva, and King James Bibles.
Bishops’ Bibles were printed from 1568 until the early 1600s. A major revision to the text occurred in 1572.