Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 1:1 | And Salomon the sonne of Dauid was stablyshed in his kyngdome, and the LORDE his God was with him, & made him exceadinge greate. |
| 1:2 | And Salomon spake vnto all Israel, to the captaynes ouer thousandes and ouer hundreds, to the Iudges, and to all ye prynces in Israel, and to the chefest fathers, |
| 1:3 | so that they wente (Salomon and the whole congregacion with him) vnto the hye place which was at Gibea: for there was ye Tabernacle of ye witnesse of God, which Moses the seruaunt of the LORDE had made in ye wyldernesse. |
| 1:4 | For Dauid had brought vp the Arke of God from Kiriath Iarim, whan he had prepared for it: for he had pitched a tent for it at Ierusalem. |
| 1:5 | As for ye brasen altare which Bezaleel the sonne of Vri the sonne of Hur had made, it was there before the habitacion of the LORDE: and Salomon and the congregacion soughte God. |
| 1:6 | And Salomon offred a thousande burntofferynges vpo the brasen altare that stode before the Tabernacle of witnesse. |
| 1:7 | In the same nighte appeared God vnto Salomon, and sayde vnto him: Axe, what shal I geue the? |
| 1:8 | And Salomon sayde vnto God: Thou hast done greate mercy vnto my father Dauid, and hast made me kynge in his steade. |
| 1:9 | Now LORDE God, let yi worde that thou hast promysed vnto my father Dauid, be verified, for thou hast made me kynge ouer a people, which is as many in nobre as the dust vpon the earth. |
| 1:10 | Graunte me wy?dome therfore and knowlege, yt I maye go out and in before this people: for who is able to iudge this greate people of thine? |
| 1:11 | Then sayde God vnto Salomon: For so moch as thou art so mynded, and hast not desyred riches ner good, ner honor, ner the soules of thine enemies, ner longe life, but hast requyred wy?dome and knowlege, to iudge my people, ouer whom I haue made the kynge, |
| 1:12 | wy?dome therfore and knowlege be geuen the. Morouer, riches & good and honoure wyll I geue the, so that soch one as thou hath not bene before the amoge the kynges, nether shal be after the. |
| 1:13 | So came Salomon from the hye place (which was at Gibeon) vnto Ierusale from ye Tabernacle of witnesse, and reigned ouer Israel. |
| 1:14 | And Salomon gathered him charettes and horsmen, so that he had a thousande and foure hundreth charettes, & twolue thousande horsmen: and those appoynted he to be in the charet cities, and with the kynge at Ierusalem. |
| 1:15 | And the kynge broughte it so to passe, that there was as moch syluer & golde at Ierusale as stones: and as many Ceders, as the Molberyes trees, that are in the valleys. |
| 1:16 | And there were horses broughte vnto Salomon out of Egipte, & the kynges marchauntes fetched them from Kena for moneye. |
| 1:17 | And they came vp, and broughte out of Egipte a charet for sixe hudreth syluer pes, and an horse for an hundreth and fiftye. Thus broughte they also vnto all the kynges of the Hethites, and to the kynges of ye Syrians. |
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.