ABSTRACT
The opulent Bishops’ Bible was designed to be less controversial than its Protestant predecessors but was unpopular next to the unauthorised Geneva Bible which facilitated more personal study. The latter is known for its dense marginalia and is especially heavy with notes in Revelation where, by contrast, the Bishops’ Bible had a total of only six. Nonetheless, one of those notes is rich with resurrection theology. Other Bishops’ Bible paratexts include a geological table of ages, which describes both the intermediate state and the future resurrection, and Archbishop Matthew Parker’s Preface showing some sympathies for the apocrypha, even closing with a quotation from it. There is no warning preface to the apocrypha as in earlier English printed Bibles and 2 Maccabees 12—the key text supporting purgatory—has no standard gloss indicating its error. Within the Second Book of Homilies, there is a homily on resurrection, drawn directly from Taverner’s Postils and different in style from the rest, although ultimately, not presenting much resurrection theology; its focus is more on atonement. Other homilies are noteworthy for their acceptance of the apocrypha and strong rejection of the real presence. And while the Elizabethan Books of Common Prayer offered little novel material, the different editions of John Foxe’s Acts and Monuments opened with evolving outlines of the cosmic chronology that were very much interested in the final ages.
