Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 2:1 | It happened also apon a tyme, that when the seruauntes of God came & stode before the LORDE, Sathan came also amonge them, and stode before him. |
| 2:2 | And the LORDE sayde vnto Sathan: From whence commest thou? Sathan answered and sayde: I haue gone aboute the lode, and walked thorow it. |
| 2:3 | Then sayde the LORDE vnto Sathan: Hast thou not considered my seruaunt Iob, how that he is an innocent & vertuous man soch one as feareth God, and eschueth euell, and that there is none like him in the londe? But thou mouedest me agaynst him, to punysh him: yet is it in vayne, for he contynueth still in his godlynesse. |
| 2:4 | Sathan answered the LORDE, and sayde: Skynne for skynne? yee a man will geue all yt euer he hath, for his life. |
| 2:5 | But laye thine honde vpon him, touch him once vpon the bone and flesh, and (I holde) he shall curse the to thy face. |
| 2:6 | Then sayde the LORDE vnto Satha: lo, there hast thou him in thy power, but spare his life. |
| 2:7 | So wente Sathan forth from the LORDE, and smote Iob with maruelous sore byles, from the sole off the fote vnto his crowne: |
| 2:8 | so that he sat vpon the grounde in the asshes, and scraped of the etter off his sores with a potsherde. |
| 2:9 | Then sayde his wife vnto him: Dost thou yet cotynue in thy perfectnesse? curse God, & dye. |
| 2:10 | But Iob sayde vnto her: Thou speakest like a foolish woma. Seinge we haue receaued prosperite at the honde of God, wherfore shulde we not be content with aduersite also? In all these thinges, dyd not Iob synne with his lippes. |
| 2:11 | Now when Iobs frendes herde of all ye trouble, that happened vnto him, there came thre off them, euery one from his owne place: namely, Eliphas the Themanite, Baldad the Suhite, and Sophar the Naamathite. For they were agreed together to come, to shewe their compassion vpon him, and to comforte him. |
| 2:12 | So when they lifte vp their eyes a farre off, they knewe him not. Then they cried, and wepte: then euery one off them rente his clothes, and sprynckled dust vpon their heades in the ayre. |
| 2:13 | They sat them downe by him also vpon the grounde, vij. dayes and vij. nightes. Nether was there eny of them that spake one worde vnto him, for they sawe that his payne was very greate. |
Coverdale Bible 1535
The Coverdale Bible, compiled by Myles Coverdale and published in 1535, was the first complete English translation of the Bible to contain both the Old and New Testament and translated from the original Hebrew and Greek. The later editions (folio and quarto) published in 1539 were the first complete Bibles printed in England. The 1539 folio edition carried the royal license and was, therefore, the first officially approved Bible translation in English.
Tyndale never had the satisfaction of completing his English Bible; but during his imprisonment, he may have learned that a complete translation, based largely upon his own, had actually been produced. The credit for this achievement, the first complete printed English Bible, is due to Miles Coverdale (1488-1569), afterward bishop of Exeter (1551-1553).
The details of its production are obscure. Coverdale met Tyndale in Hamburg, Germany in 1529, and is said to have assisted him in the translation of the Pentateuch. His own work was done under the patronage of Oliver Cromwell, who was anxious for the publication of an English Bible; and it was no doubt forwarded by the action of Convocation, which, under Archbishop Cranmer's leading, had petitioned in 1534 for the undertaking of such a work.
Coverdale's Bible was probably printed by Froschover in Zurich, Switzerland and was published at the end of 1535, with a dedication to Henry VIII. By this time, the conditions were more favorable to a Protestant Bible than they had been in 1525. Henry had finally broken with the Pope and had committed himself to the principle of an English Bible. Coverdale's work was accordingly tolerated by authority, and when the second edition of it appeared in 1537 (printed by an English printer, Nycolson of Southwark), it bore on its title-page the words, "Set forth with the King's most gracious license." In licensing Coverdale's translation, King Henry probably did not know how far he was sanctioning the work of Tyndale, which he had previously condemned.
In the New Testament, in particular, Tyndale's version is the basis of Coverdale's, and to a somewhat less extent this is also the case in the Pentateuch and Jonah; but Coverdale revised the work of his predecessor with the help of the Zurich German Bible of Zwingli and others (1524-1529), a Latin version by Pagninus, the Vulgate, and Luther. In his preface, he explicitly disclaims originality as a translator, and there is no sign that he made any noticeable use of the Greek and Hebrew; but he used the available Latin, German, and English versions with judgment. In the parts of the Old Testament which Tyndale had not published he appears to have translated mainly from the Zurich Bible. [Coverdale's Bible of 1535 was reprinted by Bagster, 1838.]
In one respect Coverdale's Bible was groundbreaking, namely, in the arrangement of the books of the. It is to Tyndale's example, no doubt, that the action of Coverdale is due. His Bible is divided into six parts -- (1) Pentateuch; (2) Joshua -- Esther; (3) Job -- "Solomon's Balettes" (i.e. Canticles); (4) Prophets; (5) "Apocrypha, the books and treatises which among the fathers of old are not reckoned to be of like authority with the other books of the Bible, neither are they found in the canon of the Hebrew"; (6) the New Testament. This represents the view generally taken by the Reformers, both in Germany and in England, and so far as concerns the English Bible, Coverdale's example was decisive.