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The Reformation-era Bible carried to America aboard the Mayflower.

First published in 1560 by English scholars exiled in Geneva, this Bible was the first English translation divided into numbered verses and the first printed for personal, everyday reading rather than church lecterns. It directly shaped the language of the King James Version (KJV) that followed it, and its text begins here with Genesis (GENEVA1599).

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The Geneva Bible, first published in 1560 and revised through its influential 1599 edition, was the Bible of the Protestant Reformation and the primary Bible read by English speakers for decades before the King James Version. Produced by English scholars who fled to Geneva during the reign of Mary I, it was the first English Bible to divide the text into numbered verses and the first to be widely printed for personal, everyday reading rather than church lectern use. Famous for its extensive marginal study notes explaining and interpreting the text, the Geneva Bible was carried by the Puritans to America aboard the Mayflower and quoted extensively by Shakespeare. Its translation directly shaped the language of the King James Version that succeeded it. Read the Geneva Bible online here, chapter by chapter and verse by verse.

Its extensive marginal notes explaining and interpreting the text made it especially popular with Reformation-era readers, setting it apart from later, note-free translations such as the <a href="/bible/asv">American Standard-ASV1901 (ASV)</a>. Read on through <a href="/bible/geneva1599/psalms">Psalms (GENEVA1599)</a> to see its influence on later English Bibles firsthand.