All English bibles, including most directly the Geneva and KJV, descend from William Tyndale’s translation of the 1520s & 30s.
Tyndale is an unsung hero of this time—and the beauty of language in the English Bible, usually attributed to KJV translators, is typically simply a copy of Tyndale’s wording.
English Bible translation was greatly feared—and illegal—in Tyndale’s day, and he was eventually caught through betrayal, while living in Belgium (and smuggling copies of his Bible back into England), and subsequently burned at the stake.
His last words were, “Lord open the eyes of the King of England!” (Henry VIII, by who’s edict he was executed). Within a few months the English government printed it’s “own” translation, which was simply the William Tyndale translation re-branded. While new translations, the Geneva and King James version bibles often used the same wording, without much alteration—so careful and beautiful was Tyndale’s original.
BTW, as far as modern translations go, the English Standard Version (ESV), the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) and the New King James Version (NKJV) are all excellent, beautiful translations...and they maintain the original gender distinctions of the original language—without any of the neutering found in other bibles.
The HCSB and the NKJV also keep the correct capitalized pronouns for God too, something which while not in the original Greek and Hebrew (which don’t have lower-case letters) I think certainly pleases Him.
Nice addition to this thread...thanks.
I am partial to the original King James Version, as it seems to me to be the equal of the soaring poetry of Shakespeare and Milton, but coupled with the Word. I agree with you it is basically the Geneva Bible with a few modifications. And, I know it may not be the most accurate translation, but I love the poetry coupled with the Word.
IMHO, modern historians have never given proper credit to the fact that the Reformation and Counter-reformation were part and parcel of the Renaissance in most of Europe. It is where our modern Western civilization, now in decay, was forged.