During the reign of “Bloody Mary”, Protestants found themselves at risk of imprisonment and death. As always, God’s providence directed this into a blessing. Many pastors and theologians from England fled to Geneva, Switzerland for refuge where John Calvin pastored. It’s important to note, however, that they were not running from their duty, but to their duty. There in Geneva, Calvin gave them a job: to publish the very first study Bible.
The Geneva Bible was published in full in 1560. This Bible became the most read English Bible for over a century.[i] Even after King James I tried to replace it with the newly Authorized Version (King James Version) in 1611, the Geneva Bible remained more popular for many years and even outsold the King James Version. It became the Bible of the Puritans and Pilgrims who brought it over with them on their voyage to America on the Mayflower. These early colonists began building America on the biblical truth and interpretations found in the Geneva Bible. Back in England, Oliver Cromwell thought so much of it that he had The Soldiers Pocket Bible (Shouldier’s Pocket Bible) printed and carried in the haversack of those in his New Model Army.[ii] Such served as a miniature version of the Geneva Bible intended to boost the morale of Cromwell’s fighting force. Additionally, the Geneva Bible was also the Bible of John Knox (a student of Calvin), William Shakespeare, and John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrim’s Progress.
Several features of the Geneva Bible make it an innovation. It was the first Bible to use numbered verses. Earlier versions only had chapter divisions. Also, it was the first English Bible to use the easier to read Roman typeface rather than the fancy Gothic letters. Additionally, and more pertinent for the matter at hand, it was the first Bible to contain study notes. But it offered more. It’s pages contained wood carved illustrations, maps, and a cross-referencing system. Go into your local Christian bookstore and you’ll find that illustrations, maps, and cross-references are a given in pretty much every Bible on the market today, not just Study Bibles. But the paradigm for this was the Geneva Bible. The point of the Geneva scholars placing these features in their innovative study Bible was to help God’s people understand His Word better. The innovation of the study Bible, therefore, was driven in large measure for practical reasons- simply to help God’s people grasp God’s truth.
The notes of the Geneva Bible are unapologetically Calvinistic. They highlight themes of God’s sovereignty, election, and predestination. The Geneva Bible identified squarely with the non-conforming Puritans, while the King James Bible was meant to oppose it as the translation of the Anglicans. Yet, King James I, who oversaw the publication of the Authorized Version, gave strict instructions for his version to not contain marginal notes. This explains why both Anglican and Puritan scholars served on the same committee that published the King James Bible. Greek and Hebrew remains unchanged (though different manuscripts can breed different and better translations), but the way one interprets the original languages and then records those interpretations in study notes can vary. Ironically, many evangelicals today whose spiritual ancestors used the Geneva Bible prefer the King James.
The closest thing to the Geneva Bible on the market today is The Reformation Study Bible, edited by R.C. Sproul. Its former name was The New Geneva Study Bible and was first printed in 1995. Although it ranks as one of the best, there are many other study Bibles available causing Stephen Nichols to refer to the 20th century as, “The Century of Study Bibles”.[iii] Nichols is spot on. But if that is the case, then the ‘90’s could be called, “The Decade of Study Bible Gold”. The MacArthur Study Bible was also published in the 90’s (1997), only two years afterThe Reformation Study Bible.
Both of these Study Bibles have had remarkable influence in the last half of the 20th century and first part of the 21st. But it was C.I. Schofield’s the Schofield Study Bible, published in 1917, that had the most influence in the first half of the 20th century. It is certainly a bizarre episode of events. The first study Bible was robustly Calvinistic, but the one that has perhaps had more influence on the American culture in the last century was unashamedly dispensational and largely non-Calvinistic (the Schofield). People have jokingly said that one reads the Greek Bible from left to right, the Hebrew from right to left, and the Schofield from bottom to top.[iv] By this they meant that Schofield’s study notes found below the biblical text were leaned upon more heavily by its readership than the biblical text itself.
The above danger of study notes leading to erroneous interpretations makes the task of choosing a study Bible an important matter. In the articles to come, I will recommend the best Study Bibles on the market today, highlighting their unique and helpful features. More important than owning and using a Study Bible is owning and using a Study Bible that helps you understand Scripture better. The goal of reading and studying Scripture is always a right interpretation of Scripture so that one can apply it to the glory of God.
[i] F.L. Cross and E.A. Livingstone, Editors. Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), 662.
[ii] Francis J. Bremer and Tom Webster, Editors. Puritans and Puritanism in Europe and America: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia (Oxford: ABC-CLIO, 2006), 548ff.
[iii] Stephen Nichols. The History of Study Bibles (https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/history-study-bibles/)
[iv] Nichols, ibid.
If you enjoyed this, don’t forget to share it with your friends on Facebook or Twitter. To do so, click the Share icon below.