Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 88:1 | O Lorde God my Sauyor, I crie daye & night before the: Oh let my prayer entre in to thy presence, encline thine eare vnto my callynge. |
| 88:2 | For my soule is full of trouble, & my life draweth nye vnto hell. |
| 88:3 | I am couted as one of the that go downe vnto the pytte, I am eue as a ma that hath no stregth. |
| 88:4 | Fre amoge the deed, like vnto the yt lye in the graue, which be out of remembrauce, and are cutt awaye from thy honde. |
| 88:5 | Thou hast layed me in the lowest pytte, in ye darcknesse and in the depe. |
| 88:6 | Thy indignacion lieth hard vpon me, and thou vexest me with all thy floudes. |
| 88:7 | Sela. Thou hast put awaye myne acquataunce farre fro me, & made me to be abhorred of them: |
| 88:8 | I am so fast in preson, that I can not get forth. |
| 88:9 | My sight fayleth for very trouble: LORDE, I call daylie vpo the, and stretch out my hondes vnto the. |
| 88:10 | Doest thou shewe wonders amonge the deed? Can the physicias rayse them vp agayne, that they maye prayse the? |
| 88:11 | Maye thy louynge kyndnes be shewed in the graue, or thy faithfulnesse in destruccion? |
| 88:12 | Maye thy wonderous workes be knowne in the darcke, or thy righteousnes in the londe where all thinges are forgotte? |
| 88:13 | Vnto the I crie (o LORDE) and early cometh my prayer before the. |
| 88:14 | LORDE, why puttest thou awaye my soule? Wherfore hydest thou thy face fro me? |
| 88:15 | My strength is gone for very sorow and misery, with fearfulnesse do I beare thy burthens. |
| 88:16 | Thy wroth full displeasure goeth ouer me, the feare of the oppresseth me. |
| 88:17 | They come rounde aboute me daylie like water, and compase me together on euery syde. |
| 88:18 | My louers and fredes hast thou put awaye fro me, and turned awaye myne acquantaunce. |
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.