Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 4:1 | Morouer Adam laye with Heua his wyfe, which coceaued & bare Cain, and sayde, I haue opteyned ye man of the LORDE. |
| 4:2 | And she proceaded forth, & bare his brother Abell. And Abell became a shepherde, but Cain became an husbande man. |
| 4:3 | And it fortuned after certaine daies, that Cain brought of the frute of the earth, an offrynge vnto ye LORDE. |
| 4:4 | And Abell brought also of the firstlinges of his shepe, and of ye fat of them. And the LORDE had respecte vnto Abell and to his offerynge: |
| 4:5 | but vnto Cain and his offerynge he loked not. Then was Cain exceadinge wroth, and his countenaunce chaunged. |
| 4:6 | And the LORDE sayde vnto Cain: Why art thou angrie? and why doth thy countenaunce chaunge? Is it not so? that yf thou do well, thou shalt receaue it: |
| 4:7 | but and yf thou do euell, thy synne lyeth open in the dore? Shal he then be subdued vnto the? and wilt thou rule him? |
| 4:8 | And Cain talked with Abell his brother. And it happened, that whan they were in the felde, Cain arose agaynst Abell his brother, and slew him. |
| 4:9 | Then sayde the LORDE vnto Cain: Where is Abell thy brother? He sayde: I can not tell. Am I my brothers keper? |
| 4:10 | And he sayde: What hast thou done? The voyce of thy brothers bloude crieth vnto me out of the earth. |
| 4:11 | And now shalt thou be cursed vpon the earth, which hath opened hir mouth, and receaued thy brothers bloude of thine hande. |
| 4:12 | Whan thou tyllest ye grounde, she shall hensforth not geue hir power vnto the. A vagabunde and a rennagate shalt thou be vpon ye earth. |
| 4:13 | And Cain sayde vnto ye LORDE: my synne is greater, then that it maye be forgeuen me. |
| 4:14 | Beholde, thou castest me out this daye from out of ye londe, and from yi sight must I hyde myself, and must be a vagabunde and a rennagate vpon ye earth. And thus shal it go with me: that who so fyndeth me, shal slaye me. |
| 4:15 | But the LORDE sayde thus vnto him: Who so euer slayeth Cain, it shalbe auenged seuenfolde. And the LORDE put a marck vpon Cain, that no man which founde him, shulde kyll him. |
| 4:16 | So Cain wente out from ye face of the LORDE, and dwelt in the lande Nod, vpon the east syde of Eden. |
| 4:17 | And Cain laye with his wyfe, which conceaued and bare Henoch. And he buylded a cite, and called it after the name of his sonne Henoch. |
| 4:18 | And Henoch begat Irad, Irad begat Mahuiael. Mahuiael begat Mathusael. Mathusael begat Lamech. |
| 4:19 | And Lamech toke him two wyues: ye one was called Ada, & the other Zilla. |
| 4:20 | And Ada bare Iabel, of whom came they that dwelt in tentes and had catell. |
| 4:21 | And his brothers name was Iuball: Of him came they that occupied harpes & pypes. |
| 4:22 | And Zilla she also bare Tubalcain, a worker in all connynge poyntes of metall & yron. And Tubalcains sister was called Naema. |
| 4:23 | And Lamech sayde vnto his wyues Ada and Zilla: Heare my voyce (ye wyues of Lamech) and herken vnto my wordes: for I haue slayne a man, and wounded my selfe: and (haue kylled) a yonge man, and gotte my self strypes. |
| 4:24 | Cain shalbe aueged seue tymes: but Lamech seuen and seuentie tymes. |
| 4:25 | Adam laye yet with his wyfe agayne, & she bare a sonne, and called him Seth. For God (sayde she) hath apoynted me another sede, for Abell, whom Cain slew. |
| 4:26 | And Seth begat a sonne also, and called him Enos. At the same tyme beganne men to call vpon the name of the LORDE. |
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.