Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 2:1 | Thus was heaue and earth fynished with all their hoost, |
| 2:2 | and thus in the seuenth daye God ended his worke, which he had made, & rested in the seuenth daye from all his workes which he had made: |
| 2:3 | And blessed the seuenth daye, & sanctified it, because yt in it he rested from all his workes, which God created and made. |
| 2:4 | These are the generacions of heaue and earth whan they were created, in the tyme whan the LORDE God made heauen and earth: |
| 2:5 | before there was eny twygg vpon earth, and or euer there grew eny grene herbe vpon the felde. For the LORDE God had yet sent no rayne vpon ye earth, nether was there eny man to tylle the earth. |
| 2:6 | But there arose a myst from the earth, & watered all the londe. |
| 2:7 | And ye LORDE God shope man eue of the moulde of the earth, & brethed in to his face ye breth of life. And so was man made a lyuynge soule. |
| 2:8 | The LORDE God also planted a garde of pleasure in Eden, towarde ye east, and set man therin whom he had made. |
| 2:9 | And the LORDE God caused to sprynge out of the earth all maner trees, pleasaut to loke vpo, and good to eate: and the tre of life in the myddest of the garden, and the tre of knowlege of good and euell. |
| 2:10 | And out of Eden there wente a ryuer, to water the garden, and there deuyded it selfe into foure heade waters. |
| 2:11 | The first is called Phison, which renneth aboute all the londe of Heuyla. |
| 2:12 | And there is founde golde, (& the golde of that countre is precious,) and there is founde Bedellion, and the precious stone Onix. |
| 2:13 | The second water is called Gihon, which runneth aboute the whole londe of ye Morias. |
| 2:14 | The thirde water is called Hydeckell, which runneth towarde the east syde of ye Assirias. The fourth water is Euphrates. |
| 2:15 | And the LORDE God toke man, & set him in the pleasaunt garden of Eden, to dresse it & to kepe it. |
| 2:16 | And the LORDE God commaunded man, sayege: Thou shalt eate of all maner trees in ye garden: |
| 2:17 | But of ye tre of knowlege of good and euell, shalt thou not eate. For loke in what daye so euer thou eatest therof, thou shalt dye the death. |
| 2:18 | And the LORDE God sayde: It is not good yt ma shulde be alone. I wil make him an helpe, to beare him copany. |
| 2:19 | And whan God the LORDE had made of the earth all maner beastes of the felde, & all maner foules vnder the heaue, he brought them vnto man, to se what he wolde call the: For as ma called all maner of liuinge soules, so are their names. |
| 2:20 | And man gaue names vnto all maner catell, & vnto the foules vnder the heaue, and vnto all maner beastes of ye felde. But vnto man there was founde no helpe, to beare him company. |
| 2:21 | Then the LORDE God caused an herde slepe to fall vpon man, and he slepte. And he toke out one of his rybbes, and (in steade therof) he fylled vp ye place with flesh. |
| 2:22 | And the LORDE God made a woman, of ye rybbe that he toke out of man, and brought her vnto him. |
| 2:23 | Then sayde man: This is once bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She shalbe called woman, because she was take of man. |
| 2:24 | For this cause shal a man leaue father and mother, and cleue vnto his wife, & they two shalbe one flesh. |
| 2:25 | And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. |
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.