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1 And the Lord said vnto Noah: come thou and al thy house into ye arke: for thee haue I seen ryghteous before me in this generation.
2 Of euery cleane beast thou shalt take with thee seuen and seuen, the male and his female, but of vncleane cattell two, the male and his female.
3 Of foules also of the ayre seuen and seuen, the male and the female, to kepe seede alyue vpon the face of all the whole earth.
4 For after seuen dayes, I wyl rayne vpon the earth fourtie dayes and fourtie nightes: & all substaunce that I haue made, wyll I destroy from the vpper face of the earth.
5 Noah therfore did according vnto all that God commaunded him.
6 And Noah was sixe hundreth yere olde, when the fluddes of water came vpon the earth.
7 And Noah came, and his sonnes, and his wyfe, and his sonnes wyues with him to the arke, because of the waters of the fludde.
8 Of cleane beastes, and of vncleane beastes, and of foules, and of euery such as creepeth vpon the earth,
9 There came two & two vnto Noah vnto the arke, the male and the female, as God had commaunded Noah.
10 And so it came to passe after seuen dayes, that the waters of the flud were vpon the earth.
11 In the sixe hundreth yere of Noahs lyfe, in the seconde moneth, the seuenteene day of ye moneth, in the same day were all the fountaynes of the great deepe broken vp, and the wyndowes of heauen were opened.
12 And the rayne was vpon the earth fourtie dayes and fourtie nightes.
13 In the selfe same day, entred Noah, and Sem, and Ham, and Iapheth the sonnes of Noah, and Noahs wyfe, and the three wiues of his sonnes with the into the arke.
14 They, and euery beast after his kinde, and al the cattel after their kinde, yea, and euery worme that creepeth vpon the grounde after his kinde, and euerye byrde after his kinde, and euery fleeyng and fethered foule.
15 And they came vnto Noah into the arke, two and two, of all fleshe wherein is the breath of lyfe.
16 And they entryng in, came male and female of all fleshe, as God had commaunded him: and God shut hym in rounde about.
17 And the fludde came fourtie dayes vpon the earth, and the waters were increased, and bare vp the arke, whiche was lyft vp aboue the earth.
18 The waters also waxed strong, and were encreased exceedyngly vpon the earth: and so the arke went vpon the vpper face of the waters.
19 And the waters preuayled exceedingly vpon the earth, and al the high hilles that are vnder the whole heauen, were couered.
20 Fyfteene cubites vpward did the waters preuayle, so that the mountaynes were couered.
21 And all fleshe perished, that moued vpon the earth, in foule, in cattell, in beast, and in euery worme that creepeth vpon the earth, yea, and euery man also.
22 So that all that had the breath of lyfe in his nostrilles throughout all that was on the drye lande, dyed.
23 And euery substaunce was destroyed that remayned and that was in the vpper part of the grounde, both man and cattell, and worme, and the foule of the heauen, they were euen destroyed from of the earth, and Noah onlye remayned aliue, and they that were with him in the arke.
24 But the water preuayled vpon the earth, a hundreth and fiftie dayes.
The Bishop’s Bible (BB)
The Bishop’s Bible (BB) is a significant English translation of the Bible that was first published in 1568 during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. It was commissioned by the Church of England as a revision of the Great Bible and as a response to the Geneva Bible, which was popular among the Puritans but contained marginal notes that were considered politically and theologically contentious by the Anglican establishment. The primary goal of the Bishop’ s Bible was to create a translation that would be more acceptable to the ecclesiastical authorities and suitable for use in Anglican churches.
One of the distinguishing features of the Bishop’s Bible is its effort to maintain a high level of accuracy and scholarly integrity while also ensuring that the language used was dignified and appropriate for public reading. The translation was undertaken by a team of bishops and other scholars, hence its name. The translators aimed to preserve the poetic and literary qualities of the original texts, drawing on previous translations such as the Tyndale Bible, the Coverdale Bible, and the Great Bible, while also incorporating their scholarly insights and linguistic refinements.
The Bishop’s Bible was notable for its large, folio format, which was designed to be read from the pulpit. It included extensive marginal notes, though these were more restrained and less controversial than those found in the Geneva Bible. The translation also featured elaborate illustrations and maps, as well as a comprehensive introduction and various prefaces that provided context and guidance for readers. Despite its grandeur and scholarly merit, the Bishop’s Bible did not achieve the widespread popularity of the Geneva Bible among the general populace.
Although the Bishop’s Bible played an essential role in the religious and cultural life of Elizabethan England, it was eventually overshadowed by the King James Version (KJV), which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611. The KJV drew heavily on the Bishop’ s Bible, as well as other earlier translations, but ultimately surpassed it in both scholarly rigor and literary quality. Nonetheless, the Bishop’s Bible remains an important milestone in the history of English Bible translations, reflecting the theological and political currents of its time and contributing to the development of subsequent translations.