A REFORMATION GUIDE TO SCRIPTURE
The Prologues from the Geneva Bible 1560
Banner of Truth. 128 pages. £5.50
ISBN 978 1 848 710 917
450 years ago, a group of English Protestant scholars exiled to Geneva during the terrible reign of Mary Tudor completed a translation of the Bible. Dedicated to the new (and Protestant) Queen Elizabeth I (‘whom God has made as our Zerubbabel’), it went through more than 150 editions, was the first Bible printed in Scotland and the version taken to America by the Pilgrim Fathers on the Mayflower.
Banner have done us a service by reprinting the Prologues, typically just a page or two of introduction for each Bible book, with an introduction and footnotes giving the meaning of unfamiliar words (e.g. that ‘grens’ are ‘snares or traps’). This beautifully produced little book contains a wealth of insights into how the Reformers understood the Bible.
Two qualities stand out for me. First, every Bible book is related clearly and explicitly to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And, second, unlike almost all academic commentary, the prologues often include pointers to how we ought to respond. For example, after introducing the four Gospels, we read that they were written so that ‘hereby we are admonished to forsake the world, and the vanities thereof, and with most affectioned hearts embrace this incomparable treasure freely offered unto us; for there is no joy nor consolation, no peace nor quietness, no felicity nor salvation, but in Jesus Christ, who is the very substance of this gospel, and in whom all the promises are Yea, and Amen’. All in all, it informs the mind and warms the heart. Warmly recommended.
Christopher Ash,
Director of the PT Cornhill Training Course
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