All:
To be fair, perhaps this is the wrong question to ask. However, there are advocates that are adamant about one or the other being the better Bible. Let's compare, and learn. It will be enlightening for you.
Both are at least based upon the Textus Receptus. The Textus Receptus is known as the received text, which contained the Hebrew Masoretic Old Testament and the Greek majority (Stephanus) New Testament.
The following translations used the Textus Receptus or majority text:
Tyndale N.T. 1526-1530 AD
Miles Coverdale 1535 AD
Matthew's Bible 1537 AD
The Great Bible 1539 AD
Geneva Bible 1557-1560 AD
The Bishop's Bible 1568 AD
King James Bible 1611 AD
Webster's Bible
Darby Bible 1884-1890 AD
Young's Literal Translation 1862-1898 AD
The 21st Century KJV 1994 AD
Literal Translation of the Bible 1995 AD
Modern King James Version 1999 AD
World English Bible (yet to be released)
Hebrew Name Version (yet to be released)
Both are rated at a 12th grade reading level.
Both are gender specific. Most modern translations today are gender neutral and do not use masculine or feminine pronouns.
Both are archaic and outdated in syntax.
Different Translators:
Geneva - Calvinists
KJV - Anglican
Study Notes:
Geneva - May be the first study Bible with annotated notes.**
KJV - No notes.
** In many cases the study notes are inaccurate, or out of date, or blatantly false.
Both follow closely "formal equivalence". All modern transalations since the era of the "Amplified Bible" now utilize "dynamic equivalency". This means they are translated as "thought-for-thought" rather than "word-for-word".
The fact is there is NO perfect Bible. They all have positive features as well as negative features. I have 42 different Bibles; and keep in mind that we live in a fallen world and imperfect people. Only the original manuscripts by the writers, prophets, and apostles' or their secretaries were inspired! Since translators are men, they often have to make a judgment call on the nuances of word meanings. In order to gain clarity we need the tools such as lexicons, concordances, and interlinears. Exact word equivalents are not always possible for every word of the Hebrew or Greek languages. The most affordable Interlinear is the Jay P. Green Interlinear Hebrew-Greek-English Bible. It is a 4-volume set and can be acquired at CBD (Christian Book Distributor's) or CBD.com for $69 - retail is $120 elsewhere. It has been republished by Hendrickson Pub., a publishing house that specializes in reprinting old classics in the religious genre of books.
I can tell you absolutely if you have vision problems, such as cataracts or require large print reading, DO NOT buy the Geneva Bible. I guarantee that you will be using a magnifier all the time because it is in 6-point Roman type. This is half the size of most books, half the size of what I am typing in 12-point. For comparison, newspaper classified advertising type is usually 8-point.
An older pastor I knew many years ago called the Geneva Bible the "Breeches Bible". I had never heard the term before and he told me this nickname came from Genesis 3 of the Geneva Bible, where it says Adam & Eve wore "breeches". Archaic language is the reason most people left the KJV for the NIV and NKJV. While the Geneva Bible is only roughly 55-60 years older than the KJV, it is riddled with archaic terms and words. The Geneva Bible went out of print in 1644 AD.
It is marketed and sold as the Bible the Pilgrims brought with them in 1620 AD. I know WND (World Net Daily) sold it this way. About six years or so ago it was resurrected for reprint. I wasn't impressed. Rather than buying a hard-to-read bound-version, I resorted to using a computer software Bible program which has it. It also is now on the Internet for free (including the notes). Just Google it - you will find it there.
The Geneva Bible was first published in English in 1560 AD in what is now Geneva, Switzerland. Few people know this, but King James I had commissioned a new Bible named after him for political reasons. Contrary to public knowledge, King James did not order a translation of the Bible in order to enlighten the common man. His sole intent was to deny the marginal notes of the Geneva Bible to the people. It was those notes that made the Geneva Bible so popular with the common man of the era.
A little history is in order here. King James I of England was a devout believer in the "divine right of kings", something his mother drummed into his noodle. Mary Stuart, his mother had numerous affairs and James was the product of an adulterous relationship.
Apparently, enough evidence of such conduct on the part of Mary Stuart and her Italian secretary existed to cause various Scottish nobles, including Mary's own husband, King Henry, to drag her lover from Mary's supper table and execute him. Mary did have affairs with other men of royalty, such as the Earl of Bothwell. She later tried to execute her husband in a gunpowder explosion that shook all of Edinburgh. King Henry miraculously survived, only to be done in later that night, when he was suffocated. The murderers remained undiscovered. Mary Stuart was eventually be-headed at the order of her cousin, Elizabeth I of England.
To such individuals, James and his mother, Mary, the "divine right of kings' meant that since a king's power came from God, the king then had to answer to no one but God. This same thinking applied to evil kings as well. If a king was evil, that was a punishment from God. I wonder if that isn't true for elected individuals today, if you know what I mean. The citizens were then suffered to silence. If a king was good, then that was a blessing from God.
This is why the Geneva Bible was such an annoyance to King James I. The Geneva Bible had those pesky marginal notes that did not set well with the king. Those notes had been put there by the leaders of the Reformation including John Knox, and John Calvin, who could not be dismissed lightly by the reader.
An example of one of those notes that enraged King James I was Exodus 1:22, where the notes stated "when tyrants cannot prevail by craft, they burst forth into open rage." In this case the word "craft" meant deceit or deception. Things haven't changed much in 400 years.
In those days religion was not what it is today, where you have a choice of churches to choose to attend or belong. If one lived in Spain, for example, he had but three religious choices:
1. Roman Catholicism
2. Silence
3. The Inquisition
The third "option" was reserved for "heretics", or people who didn't think the way the government wanted them to. To government back then, heresy and treason were viewed as synonymous.
England wasn't much different. From Henry VIII on, an Englsihman had three choices:
1. The Anglican Church
2. Silence
3. The rack, burning at the stake, or being drawn and quartered (split like a chicken).
Henry VIII once he had appointed himself head of the English churches, kept the Roman Catholic system of bishops, deacons, and the like for a very good reason. That system permitted him a "chain of command" necessary for any bureacracy to function. This system passed in tact to his heirs. This system became a little confusing for English citizens when Bloody Mary ascended the throne. Mary wanted to return to Romanism and wanted everybody to switch back. Those unwilling to change she burned at the stake. Many of her subjects fled the country.
A large number of those had plans to flee to Geneva. Mary died and was succeeded to the throne by her Protestant cousin, Elizabeth. The Anglican bureacracy returned, less a few notables such as Archbishop Cranmer and Huge Latimer (both burned at the stake) by Bloody Mary. In Scotland, John Knox led the Reformation there. The Reformation prospered in Geneva. Their greatest effort and contribution to the Reformation was the Geneva Bible.
Geneva was an anomaly in 16th century Europe. In a time of despotism and constant war, Geneva achieved her independence primarily by negotiation, playing off the various sides against each other. This "divide and conquer" approach became a well-developed strategy even into the Illuminati era, and ultimately assured a place of "neutrality" for Switzerland. The academy that John Calvin founded in 1559 AD became the University of Geneva. Geneva was originally a city-state and did not become a part of Switzerland until 1815.
The Dutch declared religious freedom for everybody. Amsterdam became an open city and English Puritans arrived by the boatload. The 1599 edition of the Geneva Bible was printed in Amsterdam until well into the late 1600's.
Freedom of religion did not begin with England, but rather by the Dutch. Freedom of religion and freedom of the press began in Amsterdam. Even today England does not have a free press. There are what are known as the "Official Secrets Act" that can land a journalist into prison. One such book that is banned in Great Britain today is Tim Cohen's book 'The Antichrist and a Cup of Tea'. This book is banned and possession of it results in a fine and imprisonment. I went to considerable effort to get a copy to a cousin of mine in Belfast, Ireland back in 1996. The book builds a case for Prince Charles or his oldest son will be the Antichrist.
Elizabeth died in 1603 AD and her cousin James Stuart, son of Mary Stuart, who up to that point in time was King James VI of Scotland, ascending the throne of England. With that "divine right of kings" embedded in his mind. King James ascended the throne in 1603. In short order, he ordered a new Bible minus any of those pesky notes that made the Geneva Bible so popular. Keep in mind the Geneva notes were written by Reformers, "anti-Catholic". Their bias shows up in the marginal notes.
In an account corrected by his own hand dated February 10, 1604, he ordained "that a translation be made of the whole Bible, as consonant as can be with to the original Hebrew and Greek; and this to be set out and printed without marginal notes, and only to be used in all churches of England in time of divine service."
James didn't want those pesky marginal notes cropping up in his Bible, not even once. That was just fine for the human masses, but not for James' own bishops in the church. They (the bishops) continued to use the Geneva Bible for decades after the KJV Bible was published. When the KJV came out in 1611, it was said to have been plagerized 20% of the KJV is from the Geneva Bible. In fact, the majority of the New Testament was copied from the Tyndale 1525 AD New Testament Bible. Tyndale's N.T. had been labeled as "seditious material" by Henry VIII. His New Testament was confiscated and burned everywhere it was found. Tyndale was hounded from London to Cologne, Germany to Worms, Germany. He finally settled in the beautiful town of Marburg, Germany under the protection of Philip, landgrave of Hesse. Marburg, Germany has been a college/university town since the twelfth century. It is about 90 miles north of Frankfurt, Germany. I was stationed at Giessen, and since I did not drink beer or liquor, my squad members would pay for my food and lodging for being their designated driver. At least one or two Saturdays we went to Marburg, visited old castles, along the beaten path, had a good meal and tried to meet young German female students. I actually visited Tyndale's modest living accommodations.
In March of 1540, after Martin Luther and other prominent Protestant leaders had expressly approved polygamy, according to the Scriptures. You wouldn't know this if I hadn't told you. The Lutheran church hides this about their famous reformer. Philip, Tyndale's protector, then became one of Europe's best known bigamists. Tyndale was later betrayed by his personal Judas, Philip, landgrave of Hesse. Tyndale was tried for heresey, condemned, strangled at the stake, and his body afterwards burnt.
It is interesting to note that the Geneva Bible Reformers, men such as John Calvin, revered today, expressed "opinions" in the marginal notes that would be simply unacceptable to Bible scholars today. For example, the passage in Genesis 12:2-3, that reads "And I will make of thee a great nation, and will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. I will also bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee, and in thee shall all the families of the Earth be blessed." We know that passage refers to the Jews. That isn't the way the Geneva Bible translators understood it. The Geneva Bible notes read: "The world shall receive by thy seed, which in Christ, the blessing that was lost in Adam." You can understand why many modern day theologians are "anti-Semitic" or "Replacement" theologians. The early Reformers were themselves.
Clearly, the marginal notes in the Geneva Bible are lacking in so many ways. Between the lack of rigorous scholarship, along with the advances in our knowledge of the Bible and any academic disciplines related to the Bible over the past four-hundred years of usefulness, of what King James I referred to as those "pesky notes", the Geneva Bible is useless today! I, myself, would not put a lot of credence or credibility upon whatever the Geneva Bible has to say. It is seriously lacking in Greek and Hebrew translation, ignoring the basics of Gender, Case, Voice, Mood, & Tense. Actually, those that boast and hype the Geneva Bible know very little about its reliability and over inflate its worth. Incidentally, this is incidental but an insight into John Calvin. When he was a Roman Catholic, he supported the practice of "usury", something the Bible forbid. The Vatican could never come to a strong Biblical stance on "usury" and ultimately opted to allow the House of Rothschild to manage their assets, (make them grow), a mission that they have to this very day. It was a sin for Rome to lend out money at interest, but let them Jews do it for us! If you have had European history, you probably know that the word "bank" comes from the German word that means "bench". For centuries the Jewish "moneychangers" conducted their business in the parks, on park benches, doing business at a time when governments would not permit the Jews to do a wide range of employment for a livelihood.
In my post series on "Standing in the Gap" and others, concerning the issue of who "he" is in Daniel 9:27, there can be no doubt from the rules of grammar "he" will be the Antichrist. The Geneva Bible foot notes on verse 26 and 27 are bifurcated. The notes actually contradict themselves for those two verses. There are three "he's" in verse 27 and all of them refer to the Antichrist. The Geneva Bible simply does not cut muster. In its day, the Geneva Bible was the only kid on the block so to speak. It was to my knowledge the original study Bible. It had yet to face the rigors of scholarship, history, language studies, and the trials of peer review, not to mention sound hermeneutical analysis.
If you haven't bought a Geneva Bible yet, save your $40 or so; buy yourself a set of Jay P. Green, Interlinear Bible, preferably the 4-volume set. It comes in an abridged small print single volume as well. Most certainly, don't let yourself be deceived by anybody by claiming this Bible is what the Pilgrims brought with them to America. The Pigrims didn't have Family Christian Stores to go into and select a Bible for the long journey across the pond, and if they did the sales clerks would have probably attempted to sell them a NIV or the recent 2011 edition of the sodomite friendly version of TNIV. The Pilgrims carried the Geneva Bible because it was the only thing available to read.
The Jay P. Green Hebrew-Greek-English Interlinear is far more true to the Biblical text than the Geneva Bible. I have been reading all those "hot-air" braggards at that other site tell us how wonderful and how good the Geneva Bible is. This is God's Bible and better than anything you own. They simply reveal their lack of knowledge, exposing their "legalist" mind set, and are simply the "blind leading the blind" around with their platitudes. This post has for weeks been in the back of my mind as I kept reading "The Scripturalist for the Lord" and his quotes from the Geneva Bible, and if you are reading anything else, your not getting God's Truth!
I could tell you a lot more about that old King James I, however, he has so many skeletons in his closet of dirty laundry it might take hours just for me to type the truth about James. I am telling you that cannot take at face value, most of the Biblical text in any translation.
Next time, in another post, I will share with the reader the truth about how we are about to get the new Bible for the One-World Religious System. It's been in the works for a long time.
Keep looking up, now is not the time to lose faith or hope. When all hell is breaking loose around us, keep pressing on, which in short means hang in there, don't lose hope, and hold on tight to His truth!
Have a great day and God bless,
Pastor Bob