Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 1:1 | After ye death of Saul whan Dauid was come agayne from the slaughter of ye Amalechites, and had remayned two dayes at Siclag, |
| 1:2 | beholde, on the thirde daye there came a man out of Sauls hoost, with his clothes rente, and earth vpon his heade. And whan he came vnto Dauid, he fell downe to the grounde, and worshipped. |
| 1:3 | Dauid sayde vnto him: Whence commest thou? He sayde vnto him: Out of the hoost of Israel am I fled. |
| 1:4 | Dauid sayde vnto him: Tell me, what is the matter? He sayde: the people is fled from the battayll, and many of the people are fallen: Yee and Saul also is deed and his sonne Ionathas. |
| 1:5 | Dauid sayde vnto the yonge ma that brought him this worde: How knowest thou that Saul and Ionathas his sonne are deed? |
| 1:6 | The yonge man yt tolde him this, sayde: I came by chaunce vnto mount Gelboa, and beholde, Saul leaned vpon his speare, & the charettes and horsme folowed harde after him: |
| 1:7 | and he turned him aboute, and sawe me, and called me. And I sayde: Here, am I. |
| 1:8 | And he sayde vnto me: What art thou? I sayde vnto him: I am an Amalechite. |
| 1:9 | And he saide vnto me: Come to me, and kyll me, for anguysh hath gotten holde of me: for my life is yet whole within me. |
| 1:10 | Then stepte I to him, and slewe him, for I knowe well that he coulde not lyue after his fall. And I toke the crowne from his heade, and the armelet fro his arme, and haue broughte it here vnto ye my lorde. |
| 1:11 | Then toke Dauid holde of his clothes, and rente them, and so dyd all the me that were with him, |
| 1:12 | & mourned, and wepte, and fasted vntyll the euen, ouer Saul & Ionathas his sonne, and ouer the people of the LORDE, and ouer the house of Israel, because they were fallen thorow the swerde. |
| 1:13 | And Dauid sayde to the yonge man that broughte him worde: What art thou? He sayde: I am ye sonne of a straunger an Amalechite. |
| 1:14 | Dauid sayde: How happeneth it that thou wast not afrayed to laye thine hade vpon the LORDES anointed to destroye him? |
| 1:15 | And Dauid sayde vnto one of his yonge men: Come hither, and slaye him. And he smote him that he dyed. |
| 1:16 | Then sayde Dauid vnto him: Thy bloude be vpon thyne owne heade. For thy mouth hath spoken against thyselfe and sayde: I haue slayne the anoynted of the LORDE. |
| 1:17 | And Dauid mourned this lamentacion ouer Saul and Ionathas his sonne, |
| 1:18 | and commaunded to teach the childre of Iuda the bowe. Beholde, it is wrytten in the boke of the righteous. |
| 1:19 | The Eldest in Israel are slayne vpon the heigth of the. How are the Worthies falle? |
| 1:20 | Tell it not at Gath: speake not of it in ye stretes at Ascalon: lest the doughters of ye Philistynes reioyse, lest the doughters of ye vncircumcysed tryumphe. |
| 1:21 | Ye mountaynes of Gelboa, nether dew ner rayne come vpo you, nether lode be wherof commeth Heueofferynges: for there is ye shylde of the Worthies smytten downe, the shylde of Saul, as though he had not bene anoynted with oyle. |
| 1:22 | The bowe of Ionathas fayled not, and the swerde of Saul came not agayne voyde from the bloude of the slayne, and fro the fat of the giauntes. |
| 1:23 | Saul and Ionathas louely and pleasaut in their lyfe, and in their deeth were not parted asunder: lighter then Aegles, and stronger then lyons. |
| 1:24 | Ye doughters of Israel wepe ouer Saul which clothed yow with purple in pleasures, and decked you with Iewels of golde on youre garmentes. |
| 1:25 | How are the Worthies fallen so in the battayll? Ionathas is slayne vpon ye heigth of the. |
| 1:26 | I am sory for the my brother Ionathas: thou hast bene very louely vnto me: Thy loue hath bene more speciall vnto me, then the loue of wemen. |
| 1:27 | How are the Worthies fallen, and ye weapens destroyed? |
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.