Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 12:1 | And ye LORDE sayde vnto Abram: Get the out of thy countre, and from thy kynred, and out of thy fathers house, in to a londe which I wil shew the. |
| 12:2 | And I wil make of the a mightie people, and wyll blesse the, and make the a greate name, yee thou shalt be a very blessynge. |
| 12:3 | I wil blesse them that blesse the, and curse them that curse the: and in the shal all the generacions of the earth be blessed. |
| 12:4 | Then wente Abram out, as the LORDE commaunded him, and Lot wente with him. Fyue & seuentie yeare olde was Abra, whan he wente out of Haran. |
| 12:5 | So Abram toke Sarai his wife, and Lot his brothers sonne, wt all their goodes which they had gotten, and soules which they begat in Hara, and departed to go in to ye londe of Canaan. |
| 12:6 | And whe they were come in to the same londe, he wente thorow, tyll he came vnto the place of Sichem, and vnto the Okegroue of More: for ye Cananites dwelt in ye lode at ye same time. |
| 12:7 | Then the LORDE appeared vnto Abra, & sayde: This londe wil I geue vnto yi sede. And there he buylded an aulter vnto ye LORDE, which appeared vnto him. |
| 12:8 | The brake he vp fro thece, vnto a mountayne yt laye on ye east syde of the cite of Bethel, & pitched his tent: so yt he had Bethel on the west side, and Ay on ye east syde: & there buylded he an altare also vnto the LORDE, & called vpon the name of the LORDE. |
| 12:9 | Afterwarde departed Abram farther, & toke his iourneye southwarde. |
| 12:10 | But there came a derth in the londe. Then wente Abram downe in to Egipte to kepe himself there as a straunger, for the derth was sore in the londe. |
| 12:11 | And whan he was come nye for to entre in to Egipte, he sayde vnto Sarai his wife: Beholde, I knowe yt thou art a fayre woman to loke vpon. |
| 12:12 | Now whan the Egipcians se the, they wil saye: She is his wife, and so shal they slaye me, and saue the alyue. |
| 12:13 | Therfore (I pray ye) saye thou art my sister, that I maye fare the better by reason of the, and that my soule maye lyue for thy sake. |
| 12:14 | Now whan he came in to Egipte, ye Egipcians sawe ye woman, yt she was very faire: |
| 12:15 | & Pharaos prynces sawe her also, & praysed her before him. Then was she brought in to Pharaos house, |
| 12:16 | and Abram was well intreated for hir sake: and he had shepe, oxe, and he Asses, seruauntes, maydes, she Asses and Camels. |
| 12:17 | But ye LORDE plaged Pharao & his house wt greate plages, because of Sarai Abras wife. |
| 12:18 | Then Pharao called Abra vnto him, and sayde: Why hast thou dealt thus wt me? Wherfore toldest thou not me at the first, yt she was thy wife? |
| 12:19 | Why saydest thou then, that she was yi sister? Wherfore I toke her to my wife. And now lo, there is yi wife, take her, and go thy waye. |
| 12:20 | He gaue his officers also a charge ouer him, to conveye him out, and his wife, and all that he had. |
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.