Bishops' Bible (1572)

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2nd Edition. Lectern Size, Old Boards, Brass Clasps

The Bishops' Bible takes its name from its production during the reign of Queen Elizabeth at the urging of bishops in the Church of England who wanted to counter the popularity of the 1557 Geneva Bible. Matthew Parker, the Archbishop of Canterbury, organized the revision. The first edition was printed in 1568. Although church canons required all bishops have a copy of this translation, Parker was unsuccessful in his attempt to gain authorized status for the Bishops' Bible from Queen Elizabeth.

The Bishops' Bible was intended as a pulpit Bible for all the churches in England. It was printed with many beautiful woodcuts, but without the copious marginal notes contained in the Geneva Bible. Like the Geneva Bible, it divided the text into verses, but it used an older system of letters instead of numbers to indicate divisions. Despite the fact that it was intended to compete with the Geneva Bible, the fact that the Bishops' Bible was printed in pulpit size meant it could not replace the smaller-sized Geneva Bible in popularity for home use.

Some bishops in the Church of England continued to use the Geneva Bible. And although Shakespeare used the Bishops' Bible in his early plays, he later shifted to the Geneva Bible. The failure of the Bishops' Bible to supplant the Geneva Bible was one of the reasons for the development of King James Bible.

The Bishops' Bible was revised in 1569. The 1572 edition on display here contains the Great Bible version of the Psalms in parallel with the Psalms translation from the Bishops' Bible.

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