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The Empire Strikes Back: the Bishop’s Bible

This episode further explains objections to the Geneva Bible by both bishops and monarchs, and analyzes the Bishop's Bible, the "establishment's" response. The commentary throughout the Geneva Bible advocated a presbyterian form of church government where a group of elders presided over the church. Bishops in England naturally opposed this arrangement, for it undermined the singular authority of the bishop. Monarchs also found presbyterian government objectionable, as the close fusion of church and state potentially undercut the monarch's role in governing the Anglican Church. In response, the "establishment" produced the Bishop's Bible in 1668 (revised in 1672). While it was a direct translation from Hebrew/Greek to English, the final work lacked cohesiveness since individual bishops translated passages of the Bible (instead of committee), and no uniform translation methodology governed the process. The Bishop's Bible was consequently not as popular as the Geneva Bible.