The Bishops’ Bible

Official doesn’t usually mean “popular.” The bishops of the English church were not pleased that the Geneva Bible, printed abroad, was the most popular Bible in English.

Queen Elizabeth I had several of her bishops produce a new English Bible, which would be “authorized” (by the queen) to be read in churches.

Published in 1568, the so-called Bishops’ Bible had on its title page a portrait of the queen.

A curious note: The pages of its New Testament were printed on thicker paper than the Old—on the assumption (probably correct) that the New would be used more.

It had some interesting footnotes, notably this one at Psalm 45:9: “Ophir is thought to be the island in the west coast, of late found by Christopher Columbus.”

The Bishops’ Bible was the one found in most churches until the King James Version in 1611.

But this “official” version achieved no popularity with the people, who preferred the Geneva Bible for their own use.

The chief significance of the Bishops’ Bible is that it was the version that the King James scholars worked from.

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