Rediscover America's Greatest Treasure!

The 1599 Geneva Bible
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Discover the New 1599 Geneva Bible

The History of the Geneva Bible

Watch the history of the Geneva Bible unfold before your eyes and see why this important Bible translation was brought back into print after 400 years!

Original & Restored

Compare the original 1599 edition and the new, restored editions.

America’s Rich Christian Heritage

The Geneva Bible is unique among all other Bibles. It was the first Bible to use chapters and numbered verses and became the most popular version of its time because of the extensive marginal notes. These notes, written by Reformation leaders such as John Calvin, John Knox, Miles Coverdale, William Whittingham, Anthony Gilby, and others, were included to explain and interpret the scriptures for the common people.

The King (James I) was displeased by some of these notes, particularly as it pertained to tyranny of leaders, adultery, and other thorny religious differences of opinion. In an effort to censor these Scriptural explanations and settle himself as the authority on what Scripture intended, he demanded a government “Authorized” version be created –– without the notes with which he disagreed.

Many who adhered to this particular Bible were persecuted, and even found themselves traveling across high seas to unknown and uncharted lands. When the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock that cold winter day, it was the 1599 Geneva Bible that was carefully studied to develop the laws of this new colony.

Tolle Lege Press has released many beautiful edition of this historic treasure, the 1599 Geneva Bible with complete notes from the original Reformers.

Experience the Bible that the Pilgrims brought to America on the Mayflower and was so instrumental in the forming of our great Nation!

Discover the New Geneva Bible

When the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in the New World on November 11, 1620, they brought along supplies, a consuming passion for advancing the Kingdom of Christ, and the Word of God. Clearly, their most precious cargo was the Bible –– specifically, the Geneva Bible. The trading establishment they were heading to before they were blown off course to Massachusetts, Jamestowne, had also brought with them this same Geneva Bible.

All but forgotten in our day, this version of the Bible was the most widely read and influential Bible in the English language of the 16th and 17th centuries. A superb translation, it was the product of the best Protestant scholars of the day and became the Bible of choice for many of the greatest writers and thinkers of that time. Men such as William Shakespeare, John Bunyan, and John Milton used the Geneva Bible in their writings. William Bradford cited the Geneva Bible in his famous book Of Plymouth Plantation.

The Geneva Bible was first printed by Rowland Hall in 1560, and “conteyned the Olde and Newe Testament.” Often referred to as “the Breeches Bible” due to the translation of Genesis 3:7, a 2nd and 3rd edition would quickly follow in 1562 and 1570. But it is the 1599 Geneva Edition that Tolle Lege Press has been honored to obtain in its entirety, and after painstakingly typesetting, updating spelling and punctuation, printed for the modern scholar of the Scriptures to own for themselves!

Leaving intact word-for-word all notes and Scriptures as the Reformers left it, the 1599 Geneva Bible is America’s greatest treasure!

“The publication and promulgation of the 1599 Geneva Bible will help restore America’s rich Christian heritage and reclaim the culture for Christ.”

– Dr. D. James Kennedy, Senior Pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church

The Geneva Bible is unique among all other Bibles. It was the first Bible to use chapters and numbered verses and became the most popular version of its time because of the extensive marginal notes. These notes, written by Reformation leaders such as John Calvin, John Knox, Miles Coverdale, William Whittingham, Anthony Gilby, and others, were included to explain and interpret the Scriptures for the common people.

Experience the Bible that people such as William Shakespeare, John Bunyan, and John Milton used in their writings. William Bradford cited the Geneva Bible in his famous book Of Plymouth Plantation. It’s shown in Robert Weir’s painting The Embarkation of the Pilgrims in the Capitol Rotunda, as the Pilgrims brought this Bible to America on the Mayflower!