THE widespread popularity attained by the Genevan Version or "Breeches Bible," published in its complete form in 1560, was a cause of deep satisfaction to the followers of John Knox and to many of the more liberal-minded members of the Church of England. On the other hand, there was a considerable group of Anglicans who, while admitting that the Genevan Version was more accurate than the Great Bible, looked askance at it as too Calvinistic in tone.
Thus it came about that at the instance of Archbishop Parker of Canterbury, arrangements were made to revise the Great Bible with a view to providing an accurate and up-to-date, while strictly orthodox translation, which it was hoped would supersede, or at any rate rival the version prepared at Geneva.
The Committee appointed by the Archbishop for this purpose in 1563 consisted of nine men, all of whom were bishops, and it is because of this fact that the revision which they carried out and which was published five years later, in 1568, came to be popularly described as the Bishops' Bible.
