I ran across a version of the Geneva Bible’s 1587 AD ed. complied along with notes by Ernest C. Marsh who notes that it is “one of the most historically significant translations of the Bible into the English language, preceding the King James translation by 51 years.”
I will quote the text as Marsh has it which is the biblical text into which has been inserted italicized statements which are notes. Now, he does not, in each case, tell us who wrote each note but does generally state that a significant edition of the Geneva Bible is “the 1587 Tomson New Testament” and “Also of note are the Geneva Bible editions of 1568-1570, which contain Calvin’s Catechism.” Moreover:
Lawrence Tomson brought out a New Testament in 1576, based on Beza’s Greek and Latin New Testaments, and using Beza’s Latin New Testament notes. Tomson’s New Testament, including the margin notes, replaced the Geneva 1560 New Testament in a 1587 quarto edition of the Geneva Bible. While there were some changes in the biblical text, the major difference in the Tomson New Testament was in the margin notes. Some readers continued to prefer the Geneva Bible 1560 New Testament version. This resulted in some Geneva Bibles having the 1560 New Testament and notes and others having Tomson’s New Testament and notes, from 1587 on.
Note what a difference the notes make below as the text actually reads, “So when men beganne to be multiplied vpon the earth, and there were daughters borne vnto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they [were] fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose,” etc.
Here is the relevant portion of Genesis 6 with notes:
1 So when men beganne to be multiplied vpon the earth, and there were daughters borne vnto them,
2 That the The children of the godly who began to degenerate. sons of God saw the daughters Those that had wicked parents, as if from Cain. of men that they [were] Having more respect for their beauty and worldly considerations than for their manners and godliness. fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always Because man could not by won by God’s leniency and patience by which he tried to win him, he would no longer withhold his vengeance. strive with man, for that he also [is] flesh: yet his days shall be an Which time span God gave man to repent before he would destroy the earth, (1Pe_3:20). hundred and twenty years.
4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare [children] to them, the same [became] mighty men which [were] of old, men of Who usurped authority over others, and degenerated from that simplicity, in which their father’s lived. renown. 5 When the Lorde sawe that the wickednesse of man was great in the earth, and all the imaginations of the thoughtes of his heart were onely euill continually,6 And it God never repents, but he speaks in human terms, because he destroyed him, and in a way denied him as his creature. repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
7 And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and God declares how much he detests sin, seeing the punishment of it extends to the brute beasts. beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
8 But Noah God was merciful to him. found grace in the eyes of the LORD. 9 These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a iust and vpright man in his time: and Noah walked with God. 10 And Noah begate three sonnes, Shem, Ham and Iapheth.11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with Meaning, that all were given to the contempt of God, and oppression of their neighbours. violence.
Thus, the sons of God is interpreted as being “children of the godly” and daughters of men as being of “wicked parents, as if from Cain.”
Thus, for some unstated reason the “children of the godly” were only male and there were no female “children of the godly” and conversely only females and no males had “wicked parents, as if from Cain.”
Also for some unstated reason the offspring of “children of the godly” and “wicked parents, as if from Cain” resulted in that which the Geneva Bible leaves uncommented upon and has simply as “Giants.”
It is interesting that 1 Peter 3:20 is cited as if the note’s author read through to 2 Peter 2 they would have noted that which Peter had to say about the Genesis 6 affair:
…God spared not the Angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation [“manner of life, conduct, behaviour, deportment”] of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)
The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.
Moreover, Jude 6-8 states:
And the Angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.
Lastly, since John Calvin in mentioned, you may want to consult John Calvin on the Nephilim.
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