Editing William Whittingham (section)

==At Geneva==
{{details|Geneva Bible}}
On 16 December 1555, and again in December 1556, Whittingham was elected a Presbyterian elder; on 16 December 1558, he was ordained as a deacon, and in 1559 he succeeded Knox as Presbyterian minister at Calvin's insistence. Upon Queen Mary's death, most of the exiles at Geneva returned to England, but Whittingham remained to complete the translation of the ''Geneva Bible''.  He had laboured with other scholars in the review of earlier English editions—Tyndale's, Coverdale's, the Thomas Matthew's Bible and other versions. He had already produced a version of the [[New Testament]], which was issued at Geneva by [[Conrad Badius]] on 10 June 1557. He also took part in the minor revisions of the [[Old Testament]]. The critical and explanatory notes were largely textual and explanatory. It was printed at Geneva by Rowland Hall in 1560; after 1611, its popularity was not lost. More than 150 editions were printed up to 1644. It was an influential version for at least one hundred years. By the 17th century, as Laudian influences would gain ascendancy, all-things-Genevan grew to be condemned.

Besides the translation of the Bible, Whittingham issued metrical versions some of [[Psalms]]. Seven of these were included among the fifty-one psalms published at Geneva in 1556; others were revised versions of [[Thomas Sternhold]]'s psalms. A metrical rendering of the [[Ten Commandments]] by Whittingham was appended. Another edition of 1558, now lost, is believed to have contained nine fresh psalms of Whittingham; these were reprinted in the edition of 1561, to which Whittingham also contributed a version of the '[[Song of Simeon]]' and two of the Lord's Prayer. Besides these, Whittingham translated four psalms in the [[Scottish psalter]]. These do not appear in any English edition. Whittingham revised for press Knox's work on [[predestination]], published at Geneva in 1560. He contributed a dedicatory epistle to [[Christopher Goodman]]'s ''<nowiki/>'How Superior Powers ought to be obeyed'<nowiki/>'' (Geneva, 1558). As well, he was the Latin translator of the martyr [[Nicholas Ridley (martyr)|Nicholas Ridley]]'s ''<nowiki/>'Brief Declaration of the Lord's Supper''' (Oxford, 1555); regarding his translation, a recent editor of the ''Declaration'' said this:<blockquote>''"... the Latin Version, to a reader who has learnt to love Ridley's noble combination of courage and decision with fairness of thought and restraint of expression, is a painful study. Its diffuseness is such as to make it much more a parahprase than a version; and this diffuseness is largely displayed in the rendering of Ridley's quiet English into an embittered rhetoric, or in quite gratuitous and disputable additions. A few examples may suffice..."''<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/briefdeclaration00ridl|title=A brief declaration of the Lord's Supper|last=ed. H.C.G. Moule|year=1895|pages=[https://archive.org/details/briefdeclaration00ridl/page/80 80]}}</ref></blockquote>