Just thought I’d share a little piece of the Geneva Bible and notes with you. Don’t know how many of you are that familiar with it?
The Geneva Bible was, well, anathema is probably pretty much the right word, to King James. As you might suspect, the Geneva Bible was translated and produced in Switzerland, out of the reach of the King of England. It was not so much the text of the Bible, but the Notes, that drove King James to distraction. (It was the TEXT of the Tyndale Bible that really bothered the King, but that is for another day.)
Consider what a monarch who believes (or who at least wanted the people to believe?) that he ruled by Divine Fiat would think about the Notes after each verse of the Geneva Bible below:
\Exodus\1:19\ – Exodus\2:8\
Exodus 1:19
And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew g women [are] not as the Egyptian women; for they [are] lively, and are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them.
(g) Their disobedience in this was lawful, but their deception is evil.
(Mark’s words: It is ok to disobey the King if he gives an unlawful order. And the PEOPLE can determine what is lawful and what is not.)
Exodus 1:21
And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he h made them houses.
(h) That is, God increased the families of the Israelites by their means.
Exodus 1:22
And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall i cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.
(i) When tyrants cannot prevail by deceit, they burst into open rage.
Exodus 2:1
And there went a a man of the house of Levi, and took [to wife] a daughter of Levi.
(a) This Levite was called Amram, who married Jochebed in Ex 6:20.
Exodus 2:3
And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and b put the child therein; and she laid [it] in the flags by the river’s brink.
(b) Committing him to the providence of God, whom she could not keep from the rage of the tyrant.
Exodus 2:8
And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the c child’s mother.
(c) Man’s counsel cannot hinder that which God has determined shall come to pass.
(from Geneva Notes, PC Study Bible formatted electronic database Copyright © 2003, 2005, 2006 Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)