Totnes Oxfam Bookshop given a 400 year old Bible

– the version that had to be banned by the King for being too radical.

Staff at this well-loved bookshop were delighted to find a ‘Geneva Bible’ dated 1615.

This version was the one that most English homes – those which could afford a book – owned from the 1500s, until publication was banned by King James in 1616 and The King James Bible was promoted. The Geneva Bible was disliked by both the nobility and the Church. The problem was marginal notes and cross-references which were seen as too radical.

They were critical of the growing problem of slavery; an issue for English ship captains who were beginning to make money transporting slaves from Africa to the Spanish and Portuguese colonies in South America. The notes criticized the clergy, advising that ordinary people could also preach and teach. They were also critical of the Pope, and worst of all, they were against the idea of the divine right of the king to rule exactly as he wished.

Historically influential, this is the kind of Bible that Shakespeare would have known. The  ‘’ brought copies of the Geneva Bible aboard the Mayflower from Plymouth to America in 1620.

Our Oxfam Bible has wonderful illustrations, including one showing the exact location of the mythical Garden of Eden!  It is known as the Breeches Bible, as other versions used ‘Aprons’ or ‘Loincloths’ for what Adam and Eve made to cover their nakedness when leaving the garden of Eden. Here the translation is ‘breeches’!

It was a loved family Bible and the added pen inscriptions are a delight. It lists family members from the 1700s. There is even a page where it seems the owner was practising his writing skills with a proverb “learning is better than house and land,” and a charming line “Little is the Robin, bad is my writing and worse is my pen. ‘

Totnes Oxfam bookshop has been earning funds towards Oxfam’s work and campaigns for almost 20 years.  Last financial year we raised over £65,000 due to the kindness of Totnesians who buy and donate books and music. Please continue to come to us, and the other Oxfam shop in the Narrows – we are very grateful.

If you would like to own this wonderful Bible, do get in touch, as if not sold locally it will be offered online at the end of September, on our website https://onlineshop.oxfam.org.uk/books/category/books.

 

If interested search for Geneva Bible, which will be priced around £500.