《Geneva Study Bible – Hosea》(Author Unknown)
Commentator
The Geneva Bible is the Bible with marginal notes authored by John Calvin, John Knox, Miles Coverdale, and many other leaders of the Reformation. The Geneva Bible was the predominant English translation during the period in which the English and Scottish Reformations gained great impetus. Iain Murray, in his classic work on revival and the interpretation of prophecy, The Puritan Hope, notes, "... the two groups in England and Scotland developed along parallel lines, like two streams originating at one fountain. The fountain was not so much Geneva, as the Bible which the exiles newly translated and issued with many marginal notes... it was read in every Presbyterian and Puritan home in both realms".
The Cambridge Geneva Bible of 1591 was the edition carried by the Pilgrims when they fled to America. As such, it directly provided much of the genius and inspiration which carried those courageous and faithful souls through their trials, and provided the spiritual, intellectual and legal basis for establishment and flourishing of the colonies. Thus, it became the foundation for establishment of the American Nation. This heritage makes it a Celestial Article indeed! And a treasured possession for any free man!
The 1560 Geneva Bible was the first to have Bible chapters divided into numbered verses. The translation is the work of religious leaders exiled from England after the death of King Edward VI in 1553. Almost every chapter has marginal notes to create greater understanding of scripture. The marginal notes often reflected Calvinistic and Protestant reformation influences, not yet accepted by the Church of England. King James I in the late 16th century pronounced the Geneva Bible marginal notes as being: "partial, untrue, seditious, and savouring of dangerous and traitorous conceits." In every copy of each edition the word "breeches" rather than "aprons" was used in Genesis 3:7, which accounts for why the Geneva Bible is sometime called the "Breeches" Bible. The Church of England never authorized or sanctioned the Geneva Bible. However, it was frequently used, without authority, both to read the scripture lessons, and to preach from. It was pre-eminent as a household Bible, and continued so until the middle of the 17th century. The convenient size, cheap price, chapters divided into numbered verses and extensive marginal notes were the cause of it's popularity
The Geneva Bible is a critical, yet almost completely forgotten part of the Protestant Reformation. Driven out of England by the persecutions of Bloody Mary, several future leaders of the Reformation came to Geneva to create a pure and accurate translation of the Holy Writ. Concerned about the influence that the Catholic Church had on the existing translations of the Bible from the Latin, these men turned to the original Hebrew and Greek texts to produce the Geneva Bible. This made the Geneva Bible the first complete Bible to be translated into English from the original Hebrew and Greek texts.
The creation of the Geneva Bible was a substantial undertaking. Its authors spent over two years, working diligently day and night by candlelight, to finish the translation and the commentaries. The entire project was funded by the exiled English congregation in Geneva, making the translation a work supported by the people and not by an authoritarian church or monarch.
All the marginal commentaries were finished by 1599, making the 1599 edition of the Geneva Bible the most complete study aide for Biblical scholars and students. This edition does not contain the Apocrypha. The Apocrypha's notes are minimal or absent in other editions. Additional highlights of this edition include maps of the Exodus route and Joshua's distribution of land, a name and subject index, and Psalms sung by the English congregation in Geneva.
The greatest distinction of the Geneva Bible, however, is the extensive collection of marginal notes that it contains. Prominent Reformation leaders such as John Calvin, John Knox, Miles Coverdale, William Whittingham, Theodore Beza, and Anthony Gilby wrote the majority of these notes in order to explain and interpret the scriptures. The notes comprise nearly 300,000 words, or nearly one-third the length of the Bible itself, and they are justifiably considered the most complete source of Protestant religious thought available.
Owing to the marginal notes and the superior quality of the translation, the Geneva Bible became the most widely read and influential English Bible of the 16th and 17th centuries. It was continually printed from 1560 to 1644 in over 200 different editions. It was the Bible of choice for many of the greatest writers, thinkers, and historical figures of the Reformation era. William Shakespeare's plays and the writings of John Milton and John Bunyan were clearly influenced by the Geneva Bible. Oliver Cromwell issued a pamphlet containing excerpts from the Geneva Bible to his troops during the English Civil War. When the Pilgrims set sail on the Mayflower they took with them exclusively the Geneva Bible.
The marginal notes of the Geneva Bible enraged the Catholic Church, since the notes deemed the act of confession to men 'the Catholic Bishops' as unjustified by Holy Script. Man should confess to God only; man's private life was man's private life. The notes also infuriated King James, since they allowed disobedience to tyrannical kings. King James went so far as to make ownership of the Geneva Bible a felony. He then proceeded to make his own version of the Bible, but without the marginal notes that had so disturbed him. Consequently, during King James's reign, and into the reign of Charles I, the Geneva Bible was gradually replaced by the King James Bible.
01 Chapter 1
1:1 The word of the LORD that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days a of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, [and] Hezekiah, b kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.
The Argument - After the ten tribes had fallen away from God by the wicked and subtle counsel of Jeroboam, the son of Neba, and instead of his true service commanded by his word, worshipped him according to their own imaginings and traditions of men, giving themselves to most vile idolatry and superstition, the Lord from time to time sent them Prophets to call them to repentance. But they grew even worse and worse, and still abused Gods benefits. Therefore now when their prosperity was at the highest under Jeroboam, the son of Joash, God sent Hosea and Amos to the Israelites (as he did at the same time send Isaiah and Micah to those of Judah) to condemn them for their ingratitude. And whereas they thought themselves to be greatly in the favour of God, and to be his people, the Prophet calls them bastards and children born in adultery: and therefore shows them that God would take away their kingdom, and give them to the Assyrians to be led away captives. Thus Hosea faithfully executed his office for the space of seventy years, though they remained still in their vices and wickedness and derided the Prophets, and condemned Gods judgments. And because they would neither be discouraged with threatening only, nor should they flatter themselves by the sweetness of Gods promises, he sets before them the two principal parts of the Law, which are the promise of salvation, and the doctrine of life. For the first part he directs the faithful to the Messiah, by whom alone they would have true deliverance: and for the second, he uses threatenings and menaces to bring them from their wicked manners and vices: and this is the chief scope of all the Prophets, either by Gods promises to allure them to be godly, or else by threatenings of his judgments to scare them from vice. And even though the whole Law contains these two points, yet the Prophets moreover note distinctly both the time of Gods judgments and the manner.
(a) Also called Azariah, who being a leper was disposed from his kingdom.
(b) So that it may be gathered by the reign of these four kings that he preached about eighty years.
1:2 The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife c of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, [departing] from the LORD.
(c) That is, one that has been a harlot for a long time: not that the Prophet did this thing in effect, but he saw this in a vision, or else was commanded by God to set forth under this parable or figure the idolatry of the Synagogue, and of the people her children.
1:3 So he went and took d Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; which conceived, and bare him a son.
(d) Gomer signifies a consumption or corruption, and rotten clusters of figs, declaring that they were all corrupt like rotten figs.
1:4 And the LORD said unto him, Call his name e Jezreel; for yet a little [while], and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of f Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel.
(e) Meaning that they would no longer be called Israelites, which name they boasted because Israel did prevail with God: but that they were as bastards, and therefore should be called Jezreelites, that is, scattered people, alluding to Jezreel, which was the chief city of the ten tribes under Ahab, where Jehu shed so much blood; ( 1Kings 18:45 ).
(f) I will be avenged upon Jehu for the blood that he shed in Jezreel: for even though God stirred him up to execute his judgments, yet he did them for his own ambition, and not for the glory of God as the intended goal: for he built up that idolatry which he had destroyed.
1:5 And it shall come to pass at that g day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.
(g) When the measure of their iniquity is full, and I will take vengeance and destroy all their administration and strength.
1:6 And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And [God] said unto him, Call her name h Loruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly i take them away.
(h) That is, not obtaining mercy: by which he signifies that Gods favour had departed from them.
(i) For the Israelites never returned after they were taken captives by the Assyrians.
1:7 But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will k save them by the LORD their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen.
(k) For after their captivity he restored them miraculously by the means of Cyrus; ( Ezra 1:1 ).
1:9 Then said [God], Call his name l Loammi: for ye [are] not my people, and I will not be your [God].
(l) That is, not my people.
1:10 Yet the number of the m children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, [that] in the place where it was said unto them, Ye [are] not my people, [there] it shall be said unto them, [Ye are] the sons of the living God.
(m) Because they thought that God could not have been true in his promise unless he had preserved them, he declares that though they were destroyed, yet the true Israelites who are the sons of the promise, would be without number, who consist both of the Jews and the Gentiles; ( Romans 9:26 ).
1:11 Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be n gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great [shall be] the day of Jezreel.
(n) That is, after the captivity of Babylon, when the Jews were restored: but chiefly this refers to the time of Christ, who would be the head both of the Jews and Gentiles.
(o) The calamity and destruction of Israel will be so great, that to restore them will be a miracle.
02 Chapter 2
2:1 Say ye unto your a brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah.
(a) Seeing that I have promised you deliverance, it remains that you encourage one another to embrace this promise, considering that you are my people on whom I will have mercy.
2:2 Plead with your b mother, plead: for she [is] not my wife, neither [am] I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries c from between her breasts;
(b) God shows that the fault was not in him, that he forsook them, but in their Synagogue, and their idolatries; ( Isaiah 50:1 ).
(c) Meaning that their idolatry was so great, that they were not ashamed, but boasted of it; ( Ezekiel 16:25 ).
2:3 Lest I strip her naked, and d set her as in the day that she was e born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.
(d) For even though his people were as a harlot for their idolatries, yet he had left them with their dress and dowry and certain signs of his favour, but if they continued still, he would utterly destroy them.
(e) When I brought her out of Egypt. See Ezekiel 16:4
2:4 And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they [be] the f children of whoredoms.
(f) That is bastards, and begotten in adultery.
2:5 For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my g lovers, that give [me] my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.
(g) Meaning the idol which they served, and by whom they thought they had wealth and abundance.
2:6 Therefore, behold, I will hedge up h thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths.
(h) I will punish you so that you may then test whether your idols can help you, and bring you into such straightness that you will have no lust to play the harlot.
2:7 And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find [them]: then shall she say, i I will go and return to my first husband; for then [was it] better with me than now.