Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 17:1 | And Iosaphat his sonne was kynge in his steade, & waxed mightie against Israel. |
| 17:2 | And he put men of warre in all the stronge cities of Iuda, and set officers in the londe of Iuda, and in the cities of Ephraim, which Asa his father had wonne. |
| 17:3 | And the LORDE was wt Iosaphat: for he walked in the olde wayes of his father Dauid, & soughte not Baalim, |
| 17:4 | but the God of his father, & walked in his commaundementes, & not after the workes of Israel: |
| 17:5 | therfore dyd the LORDE stablyshe the kyngdome in his hade. And all Iuda gaue presentes vnto Iosaphat, & he had greate riches & worshippe. |
| 17:6 | And whan his hert was coraged in the wayes of the LORDE, he put downe styll the hye places and groues out of Iuda. |
| 17:7 | In the thirde yeare of his reigne sent he his prynces, Benhail, Obadia, Zacharias, Nethaneel & Michaia, to teach in the cities of Iuda: |
| 17:8 | & with them the Leuites: Semaia, Nethania, Sebadia, Asahel, Semiramoth, Ionathan, Adonia, Tobia & Tob Adonia, & with them ye prestes Elisama & Ioram. |
| 17:9 | And they taughte in Iuda, & had the boke of the lawe of ye LORDE wt them, & wente aboute in all ye cities of Iuda, & taughte the people. |
| 17:10 | And the feare of the LORDE came vpon all ye kyngdomes in the countrees that laye aboute Iuda, so yt they foughte not agaynst Iosaphat. |
| 17:11 | And the Philistynes broughte presentes and trybute of syluer vnto Iosaphat. And the Arabians broughte him seuen thousande and seuen hundreth rammes, and seuen thousande and seuen hundreth he goates. |
| 17:12 | Thus increased Iosaphat, & grewe euer greater. And he buylded castels and corne cities in Iuda. |
| 17:13 | And dyd moch in the cities of Iuda, and had valeaunt and mightie men at Ierusalem. |
| 17:14 | And this was ye ordinaunce thorow out the house of their fathers, which were rulers ouer the thousandes in Iuda. Adna a captayne, & wt him were thre hudreth thousande mightie men. |
| 17:15 | Nexte vnto him was Iohanan ye chefe, and with him were two hundreth and foure score thousande. |
| 17:16 | Nexte him was Amasia the sonne of Sichri the fre wyllinge of ye LORDE, and with him were two hundreth thousande valeaunt men. |
| 17:17 | Of the children of Ben Iamin was Eliada a mightie man, and with him were two hundreth thousande ready with bowes and shyldes. |
| 17:18 | Nexte vnto him was Iosabad, and with him were an hundreth and foure score thousande harnessed men of warre. |
| 17:19 | All these wayted vpon the kynge, besydes those that the kynge had layed in the stroge cities thorow out all Iuda. |
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.