« | Revelation 9 | » |
1 And the fift angell blewe, and I sawe a starre fall from heauen vnto ye earth: and to hym was geuen the key of the bottomlesse pit.
2 And he opened the bottomlesse pit, and the smoke of the pit arose, as the smoke of a great fornace, and the sunne and the ayre were darkened by the reason of the smoke of the pit.
3 And there came out of the smoke locustes vpon the earth, and vnto them was geuen power, as the scorpions of the earth haue power.
4 And it was commaunded them that they shoulde not hurt the grasse of the earth, neither any greene thing, neither any tree: but only those men which haue not the seale of God in their forheades.
5 And to them was commaunded that they should not kyll them, but that they shoulde be vexed fiue monethes, and their paine was as the payne that commeth of a scorpion when he hath stong a man.
6 And in those dayes shall men seke death, and shall not fynde it, and shall desire to dye, and death shall flee from them.
7 And the similitude of the locustes was like vnto horses prepared vnto battayle, and on their heades were as it were crownes lyke vnto golde, and their faces were as it had ben the faces of men.
8 And they had heere as the heere of women, & their teeth were as ye teeth of Lions.
9 And they had habbergions as it were habbergions of iron, and the sounde of their wynges was as ye sounde of charrettes when many horses runne together to batayle.
10 And they had tayles lyke vnto scorpions, and there were stynges in their tayles: and their power was to hurt men fiue monethes.
11 And they had a king ouer them, which is the angell of the bottomlesse pytte, whose name in the Hebrue tongue is Abadon, but in ye Greke tongue Apollyon, [that is to say, a destroyer.]
12 One woe is past, & beholde two woes come yet after this.
13 And the sixt angell blewe, & I hearde a voyce from the foure hornes of the golden aulter, which is before God,
14 Saying to the sixt angell whiche had the trumpe: Loose the foure angels which are bounde in the great riuer Euphrates.
15 And the foure angels were loosed, whiche were prepared for an houre, for a day, for a moneth, and for a yere, for to slea the thirde part of men.
16 And the number of horsemen of warre were twentie thousand times ten thousande, & I hearde the number of them.
17 And thus I sawe the horses in a vision, and them that sate on them, hauing fierie habbergions of a iacinct colour, and brymstone, and the heades of the horses were as the heades of lions, and out of their mouthes went foorth fire, and smoke, and brymstone.
18 And of these three was the third part of men kylled [that is to say] of fire, smoke and brymstone, which proceaded out of the mouthes of them.
19 For their power was in their mouthes, & in their tayles: for their tayles were lyke vnto serpentes, and had heades, & with them they dyd hurt.
20 And the remnaunt of the men whiche were not killed by these plagues, repented not of the deedes of their handes, that they shoulde not worship deuyls, and idoles of golde, and syluer, & brasse, and stone, and of wood, whiche neither can see, neither heare, neither go:
21 Also they repented not of their murther, & of their sorcerie, neither of their fornication, neither of their theft.
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.