Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 1:1 | In the first yeare of Cyrus kynge off Persia (that the worde of the LORDE spoken by the mouth of Ieremy might be fulfilled) the LORDE stered vp the sprete of Cyrus kynge of Persia, yt he caused it be proclamed thorow out all his empyre, yee and by wrytinge also, sayenge: |
| 1:2 | Thus sayeth Cyrus the kynge of Persia: The LORDE God of heaue hath geuen me all the kyngdomes in the londe and hath commaunded me to buylde him an house at Ierusalem in Iuda. |
| 1:3 | Who soeuer now amonge you is of his people, the LORDE his God be with him, and let him go vp to Ierusalem in Iuda, and buylde the house of the LORDE God of Israel. He is ye God that is at Ierusale. |
| 1:4 | And who so euer remayneth yet in eny maner of place (where he is a straunger) let the me of his place helpe him with syluer and golde, with good and catell of a good frewill, for the house of God at Ierusalem. |
| 1:5 | Then gat vp the pryncipall fathers of Iuda and Ben Iamin, and the prestes and Leuites, and all they whose sprete God had raysed to go vp, and to buylde the house of the LORDE at Ierusale. |
| 1:6 | And all they that were aboute them, strengthed their hande with vessels of syluer and golde, with good and catell, and Iewels, besydes that which they gane of their awne frewill. |
| 1:7 | And kynge Cyrus brought forth the vessels of the LORDES house, which Nabuchodonosor had take out of Ierusalem, and put in his gods house. |
| 1:8 | But Cyrus ye kynge of Persia brought the forth by Mithredath the treasurer, and nombred the vnto Se?bazar the prynce of Iuda. |
| 1:9 | And this is the nombre of them: thirtye basens of golde, and a thousande basens of syluer, and nyne and twentye knyues, |
| 1:10 | thirtye cuppes of golde, and of other syluer cuppes foure hundreth and ten, and of other vessels a thousande. |
| 1:11 | So that all the vessels both of golde and syluer, were fyue thousande and foure hundreth. Se?bazar broughte them all vp, with them that came vp out of the captiuyte off Babilon vnto Ierusalem. |
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.