400 year old Breeches Bible donated

Lynn University is grateful to Tina Zegas, mother of senior Leah Zegas, for her donation of a Breeches Bible. This 400-year-old Bible, printed in 1603, is now permanently housed in the E.M. Lynn Library and makes a welcomed addition to the university’s core curriculum, Dialogues of Learning. “An historical text like the Breeches Bible is an extraordinary gift for students in the Dialogues of Learning. In addition to exploring theoretical concepts related to belief and reason, through “hands-on” experiential learning, the Breeches Bible will allow students to explore a primary biblical text that will enrich their academic experience at Lynn,” states Katrina Carter-Tellison, dean of the College of Liberal Education and chair of the Dialogues of Learning.

This Bible is significant because of the history surrounding it. When Mary Tudor became Queen of England in 1553, she tried to reverse the policies of her father Henry VIII (who had made himself head of the Church of England) and her brother Edward VI (who had encouraged the Protestant faith) and restore the Roman Catholic religion.

Nicknamed “Bloody Mary,” the queen pursued a policy of burning both Bibles and Protestants. Many Protestant scholars fled from England to Geneva, where they produced the first English Bible translated entirely from the Greek and Hebrew.
Officially known as the Geneva Bible, this translation is referred to as the Breeches Bible because, according to Genesis 3:7, Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves together to make “breeches.”