Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 1:1 | Ivdas the seruaunt of Iesus Christ, the brother off Iames. To the which are called, and sanctified in God the father, and preserued in Iesu Christ. |
| 1:2 | Mercy vnto you, and peace and loue be multiplied. |
| 1:3 | Beloued, when I gaue all diligence to wryte vnto you of the commen saluacion: it was nedefull for me to wryte vnto you, to exhorte you, that ye shulde continually laboure in the faith which was once geue vnto the sayntes. |
| 1:4 | For there are certayne craftely crept in, of which it was wrytten afore tyme vnto soche iudgement. They are vngodly, and turne the grace of oure God vnto wantanes, and denye God the onely LORDE, and oure LORDE Iesus Christ. |
| 1:5 | My minde is therfore to put you in remebrauce, for as moche as ye once knowe this, how that ye LORDE (after that he had deliuered the people out of Egipt) destroyed them which afterwarde beleued not. |
| 1:6 | The angels also which kept not their first estate: but lefte their awne habitacion, he hath reserued in euerlastinge chaynes vnder darcknes vnto the iudgement of the greate daye: |
| 1:7 | euen as Sodom and Gomor, and the cities aboute them (which in lyke maner defiled them selues with fornicacion and folowed straunge flesshe) are set forth for an ensample, and suffre the vengeaunce of eternall fyre. |
| 1:8 | Lykewyse these dremers defyle the flesshe despyse rulers, and speake euell of them that are in auctoritie. |
| 1:9 | Yet Michael the archangell when he stroue agaynst the deuell, & disputed aboute the body of Moses, durst not geue raylinge sentence, but sayde: the LORDE rebuke the. |
| 1:10 | But these speake euell off those thinges which they knowe not: and what thinges they knowe naturally, as beastes which are without reason, in tho thinges they corrupte them selues. |
| 1:11 | Wo be vnto the, for they haue folowed the waye of Cain, and are vtterly geue to the erroure of Balaam for lukers sake, and perysshe in the treason of Core. |
| 1:12 | These are spottes which of youre kindnes feast togedder, without feare, fedynge the selues. Cloudes they are withouten water, caried about of wyndes, and trees without frute at gadringe tyme, twyse deed and plucked vp by the rotes. |
| 1:13 | They are the ragynge waues of the see, fominge out their awne shame. They are wandrynge starres, to who is reserued the myst of darcknes for euer. |
| 1:14 | Enoch the seuenth from Adam prophecied before of suche, saienge: Beholde, the LORDE shal come with thousandes of sayntes, |
| 1:15 | to geue iudgemet agaynst all men, and to rebuke all that are vngodly amonge the, of all their vngodly dedes, which they haue vngodly committed, and of all their cruell speakynges, which vngodly synners haue spoken agaynst him. |
| 1:16 | These are murmurers, complaners, walkynge after their awne lustes, whose mouthes speake proude thynges. They haue me in greate reuerence because of avauntage. |
| 1:17 | But ye beloued, remeber the wordes which were spoken before of the Apostles of oure LORDE Iesus Christ, |
| 1:18 | how that they tolde you yt their shulde be begylers in the last tyme, which shulde walke after their awne vngodly lustes. |
| 1:19 | These are makers off sectes fleshlie, hauynge no sprete. |
| 1:20 | But ye derlye beloued, edifye youre selues in youre most holy faith, prayenge in the holy goost, |
| 1:21 | and kepe youre selues in the loue of God, lokinge for the mercy of oure LORDE Iesus Christ, vnto eternall life. |
| 1:22 | And haue copassion on some, separatinge the: |
| 1:23 | and other saue with feare, pullinge them out of the fyre, and hate the fylthy vesture of the fleshe. |
| 1:24 | Vnto him that is able to kepe you, that ye faule not, and to present you fautlesse before ye presence of his glory with ioye, |
| 1:25 | yt is to saye, to God oure saueoure which only is wyse, be glory, maiestie, dominion, & power, now and for euer. Amen. |
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.