Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 15:1 | And the sprete of God came vpo Asarias the sonne of Obed, |
| 15:2 | which wente forth to Asa, and sayde vnto him: Heare me Asa and all Iuda & Ben Iamin: The LORDE is with you, whyle ye are with him: and yf ye seke him, he wylbe founde of you. But yf ye forsake him, he shal forsake you also. |
| 15:3 | Neuertheles there shal be many dayes in Israel, that there shalbe no true God, no prest to teach, & no lawe. |
| 15:4 | And whan they turne in their trouble vnto the LORDE God of Israel, and seke him, he shalbe founde. |
| 15:5 | At that tyme shall it not be well with him that goeth out and in: for there shal be greate vproures vpon all them yt dwell on the earth. |
| 15:6 | For one people shall all to smyte another, & one cite another: for God shal vexe them wt all maner of trouble. |
| 15:7 | But be ye stronge, and let not youre handes be feble: for youre worke hath his rewarde. |
| 15:8 | Whan Asa herde these wordes, and the propheciege (of Asarias the sonne) of Obed the prophet, he toke a corage vnto him, and put awaye the abhominacions out of all ye londe of Iuda and Ben Iamin, and out of the cities that he had wonne vpon mount Ephraim: and renued the LORDES altare, which stode before the porche of the LORDE. |
| 15:9 | And all Iuda and Ben Iamin gathered them selues together, and the straungers with them out of Ephraim, Manasses and Simeon: for there fell many vnto him out of Israel, whan they sawe that the LORDE his God was with him. |
| 15:10 | And they resorted vnto Ierusalem in the thirde moneth of the fyftenth yeare of the reigne of Asa, |
| 15:11 | and the same daye offred they vnto the LORDE of the spoyle that they had broughte, seuen hudreth oxen, and seuen thousande shepe. |
| 15:12 | And they entred in to ye couenaunt, that they wolde seke the LORDE God of their fathers, with all their hert and with all their soule. |
| 15:13 | And who so euer wolde not seke ye LORDE God of Israel, shulde dye, both small & greate, both man and woman: |
| 15:14 | and they sware vnto the LORDE with loude voyce, with shoutinge, with trompettes and with shawmes. |
| 15:15 | And all Iuda were glad ouer the ooth: for they had sworne with all their hert, and they soughte him with a whole wyll: and he was founde of them, and the LORDE gaue them rest on euery syde. |
| 15:16 | And Asa ye kynge put downe his mother from the mynistracion, that she had founded in the groue vnto Miplezeth. And Asa roted out hir Miplezeth, and beate it in sunder, and brent it by the broke Cedron. |
| 15:17 | But the hye places were not put downe out of Israel. Yet was the hert of Asa perfecte as longe as he lyued. |
| 15:18 | And loke what his father had halowed, and that he him selfe had halowed, he broughte it in to ye house of God, syluer, golde and ornametes. |
| 15:19 | And there was no warre vnto the fyue and thirtieth yeare of the reigne of Asa. |
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.