The Crown of My Collection

In my collection of old Bibles and religious books is a very rare piece.  While I'm proud of such items as my 1850 Josephus, 1815 KJV NT, 1865 German NT, 1892 Hebrew Prayerbook, and 1804 Church history book, there's one very rare piece that I've learned is much older than I would have thought. 

About a year ago a friend was cleaning out his house and gave me what I thought was a page from an old King James Bible.  I have several 19th century pieces and assumed that it was about the same age.  As I inspected the type and the text, I noticed that it used the f instead of s, and I instead of J.  Then I realized that the translation didn't match the King James Version.  After a while of searching other translations, I discovered that it matched the Geneva Bible, also called the Breeches Bible (16th century).  Again, I assumed that it was a 19th century reproduction, until I discovered that until recently the last year it was printed was 1644.  In fact, it was only produced from 1560 to 1644.  After a call to a dealer in rare Bibles, it was confirmed that I had an original page from a Geneva Bible.

This is a great piece due to its historical significance.  The Geneva Bible was the first English study Bible, first to have numbered verses, first Bible brought to America, favorite Bible of the Pilgrims and Puritans, the Bible used by William Shakeseare, and the Bible of the Protestant Reformation.  It was the product of the Reformer community living in Geneva, as they had fled England due to persecution by Queen "Bloody" Mary.  The Geneva community was led by such men as John Calvin, John Knox, Myles Coverdale, and John Foxe.  It was a historic time and they produced a historic Bible.  Although it was a major effort, they kept about 90% of William Tyndale's version.  Tyndale fought for years to translate the Bible into English, and after doing so he was rewarded by being burned at the stake.  Tyndale's dying words in 1536 were, "Lord, open the King of England's eyes."  Three years later, King Henry VIII finally allowed the Bible to be translated into English. 

So by 1560, the reformers did not just try to publish a Bible for people to read.  They wanted a Bible that a person could study.  This Bible introduced numbered verses, reference notes and commentary in the side margin.  It was printed in both Latin and Gothic font.  After a thousand years of only having the Bible read in Latin, this was truly a breath of fresh air to the English readers of that day.

I don't know how many were printed, but the dealer I spoke to said he had complete Geneva Bibles that looked like they just came off the printing press.  In comparison, my 400 year old page isn't that hot.  So how much do you think this rare piece of history is worth?  Would you guess thousands of dollars?  Hundreds?  No.  when I asked the dealer, he told me that it was only worth about $25.00.  But to me, when I think of the history of the item, what it took to get to that point in history, and the mystery of whose hands it had been in over its 400 year journey, I consider it priceless.