With all the Previous stuff said, the first thing I want to do is answer a question you may have, my dearest Wormwood, is "With all the English bible translations out there with Modern Language and notes Why would you choose the Geneva bible?
Many years ago i bought a Large facsimile of the 1599 Geneva. I read it some but not often. I started carrying it to church because it gave me a chance to poke fun at some of the 1611 KJV folks who were a little negative on the newer translations that some of my friends used. I could now claim the 1611 AV folks used a more modern translation like the NIV and ESV when compared to my older 1599 Geneva. But it was a massive bible and impractical to carry around on a regular basis, plus the Chapter enumerations were in roman numerals and there were no headings on the top of the pages making flipping through the bible, (the psalms were a complete nightmare) and we do a lot of flipping around in our church very very difficult!
Then three things happened. First, I had grown very passionate about the puritans and reformers who turned out not to be the type people i had (like the rest of the culture) thought they were. They were very sweet, sensitive men who passionately loved the Lord, their families and their congregations. The reformers were the men who translated the text to English in the Geneva and supplied the numerous notes to the Geneva (including John Calvin himself). And many of the Puritans and Pilgrims used the Geneva bible. Second I found out that Tolle Lege Press was reprinting the 1599 Geneva Bible with modern spellings (although that never bothered me), typed text (vs. the hand scribbled notes in the facsimile) and the bible would be more compact and easier to carry around.
Finally i found the Geneva's translation of 1 Corinthians 1:27-28, which has since become my favorite verse in the Bible. It reads
"But God hath chosen the foolish things things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world, to confound the mighty things, And vile things which are despised, hath God chosen, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are."
My Love of this translation hinges on the word "vile." Context is important or else you loose the meaning of the verse. The previous verses describe how God has not chosen noblemen, and wise men, (by the worlds' standards), strong men or rich men. God has not chosen men of great importance in the world's eyes, which then leads to this verse. God has chosen the weak and the foolish and (my favorite word of all) the "vile" things of the world. I Love it because it gives me great hope! Other translations translate this word as "low" or "base." And those are perfectly valid words but if you knew my life, and if you knew my history, and my heart and my sins, the only proper word to describe me is the word "Vile!" And i rejoice in this because it is the vile that Christ came to save. His Blood is applied to Troy, Vilest of sinners, His blood saves me to the uttermost. Praise God!!
So these are the long winded reasons i have come to love the Geneva bible so. I still look at other translations in addition to the Geneva, of course, especially when I'm doing a bible study or sermon prep. But the Geneva is my Main stay in carrying around and in daily reading and i hope it always will be. I won't Lie, there are verses that it does do a poor job in translating, but there are many places where it does a far superior job translating than any other translation (ex Luke 1:3, by comparison the Geneva blows all other translation out of the water in the translation and accuracy on this verse). And it doesn't use the flowery poetic language like the King James does, thus making it a far far more understandable read than the King James is to modern readers, in my opinion (see this link for a quick compare of a couple verses).
Anyway, enough rambling already. Next post i should be getting to some good stuff.
your affectionate uncle,
Screwtape.
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