Every sixteenth-century Bible reflects something of the historical dynamic from which it emerged. Even when the biblical text is minimally revised, the paratext of annotation, prefaces, and indexes changes and reflects the discursive practices and power relations of an England negotiating its identity in a seemingly ever-expanding intellectual and actual sixteenth-century world-scape.¹

Surprisingly, then, that so many sixteenth-century Bibles have been branded as marginal and insignificant. Twentieth-century scholars have continued to focus on those Bibles identified in the nineteenth century as having importance because of their influence on the ‘Authorized’ Version. This article considers some aspects of William Whittingham's 1557 New Testament and questions the premise upon which sixteenth-century Bibles have been judged important.