The Bishops Bible was begun in response to the lack of acceptance of the Great Bible and the Geneva Bible's contentious annotations.

Matthew Parker (1504 - 1575), then Archbishop of Canterbury and formerly Anne Boleyn's chaplain and her daughter Elizabeth's tutor, led a group of Church of England bishops in the work from 1563, using the Great Bible as a basis but translating again from the original Hebrew and Greek (though using the Latin Vulgate to add the Apocrypha). He had an extensive library of older manuscripts ranging from Latin and Anglo-Saxon monastic works to comtemporary work and not only proposed but also supervised and paid for the production of the Bible.

Five years later, on 22nd September 1568, the resulting work was presented as a gift to Elizabeth I who, as the monarch, was the head of the Church of England. It was granted a royal warrant as the Bible to be used in English Churches replacing the Great Bible.

It has been remarked that the quality and indeed the underlying rules of the translation work were variable across the text that the different bishops produced. Some simply lifted texts from elsewhere.

Often referred to as being the rough draft of the King James version, the first edition has numerous woodcut illustrations and even today is considered a landmark in printing achievement.

This Bible went through a further 50 or so editions following the three illustrated here, the most significant being the 1602 edition which formed the basis of the King James Bible.

The Bishops Bible is also known as the Treacle Bible. Jeremiah 8:22 reads Is there not treacle at Gilead?. It wasn't the first translation that used the word "treacle" here (others included the Great Bible). Later translations refer to "balm".

Here are three original pages from the first edition published in 1568.

This page shows 2 Kings 18:14-36.

This page shows Isaiah 48:1-21. It includes a woodcut H to begin the chapter.

This page shows Isaiah 57:8 to 58:4. The woodcut beginning chapter 58 is more elaborate than the H beginning chapter 48, apparently featuring Eve and the serpent inside the letter C.

This is an original page from the 1569 edition. This edition made a number of corrections to the text especially the Greek Scriptures.

This page shows Matthew 16:21-26 and a number of annotations.

This is an original page from the 1569 quarto edition. This edition, using a different paper size, carries a number of corrections to the 1568 text.

This page shows 1 Samuel 19:24 to 20:24. The marginal notes are of interest, several referring to the original Hebrew meanings.