Bishops' Bible

The Bishops' Bible was the Church of England's official answer to the Geneva Bible, produced under episcopal oversight and closely associated with episcopal authority. Covering the complete Bible, it drew on Hebrew, Greek, and prior English sources, taking as its base text the Great Bible revised against the original languages. Its translation philosophy is one of ecclesial formal revision, and it is accordingly categorised as a revision rather than a fresh rendering, with the Great Bible standing as both its predecessor and its base translation. Appointed for reading in churches, it nevertheless proved less popular in households than the Geneva Bible, whose annotations and portable formats had won a wide lay readership. Its most enduring role came later: it served as the nominal base text for the translators of the King James Version, and so passed much of its wording, at one remove, into the mainstream of English biblical tradition.