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To: knarf

I believe the most influential Bible in pre-Revolutionary America was the Geneva Bible.

“Despite the uncertainty of the Geneva Bible being the first English Bible brought to American soil, it is certain the Geneva Bible became the spiritual foundation for the future United States of America. Though earlier temporary colonies may have used other Bibles, the Geneva Bible was most likely the Bible of Jamestown, and clearly the Bible of the Pilgrims and the Puritans.

“It is likely that the Geneva Bible first came to Jamestown with Captain John Smith and company in 1607, since the first ministers of Virginia were Puritans. In 1609 William Strachey, secretary of the Virginia Company, arrived in Jamestown, and quoted from the Geneva Bible in writing his history of Virginia. Rev. Alexander Whitaker, who came to the colony in 1611, used a Geneva Bible as documented in one of his surviving sermon texts. It is very likely that John Rolfe, a young widower, used a Geneva Bible to teach Matoaka, better known as Pocahontas, about Christianity. She became a Christian, and soon afterwards, on April 5, 1614, they were married.

“Also called the “Pilgrims Bible,” the Geneva Bible influenced many of the Pilgrims. In his book The Genesis of the New England Churches, Leonard Bacon says that the Pilgrims Pastor, John Robinson, used the Geneva Bible in Leyden. It therefore implies that it was the Geneva Bible that his congregation carried to the New World. Further, Massachusetts Governor John Bradfords history quotes the Geneva Bible. In fact, the Pilgrim Society Museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts has Geneva Bibles that belonged to Governor Bradford as well as other Pilgrim Fathers.

“P. Marion Simms, author of The Bible in America, says of the Geneva Bible, “Being a Puritan Bible, the Geneva would be used throughout the early colonies wherever English-speaking Puritans were found. New England used it extensively and the Plymouth colony used it exclusively.” Even the famous Puritan preacher John Cotton used a copy of the Geneva Bible. The Geneva Bible helped form the Christian culture in the English-speaking colonies of the New World that would later become America.”

http://logosresourcepages.org/idx_Pages/idx_geneva.htm


16 posted on 08/21/2011 9:06:05 AM PDT by .45 Long Colt
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To: knarf

By the way, I didn’t mean that last comment as any kind of slap at the KJV. My pastor still preaches from it and it’s still my favorite.

I don’t even own a Geneva Bible, but I am aware of its massive historical significance.


17 posted on 08/21/2011 9:42:17 AM PDT by .45 Long Colt
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