Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 5:1 | The prophetes, Aggeus and Zachary ye sonne of Iddo, prophecied vnto ye Iewes that were in Iuda and Ierusale, in the name of the God of Israel. |
| 5:2 | Then gat vp Zorobabel the sonne of Salathiel, and Iesua the sonne of Iosedec, and beganne to buylde the house of God at Ierusalem, and with them the prophetes of God which strengthed the. |
| 5:3 | At the same tyme came to the Thathnai the debite on this syde the water, and Sethar of Bosen, and their councelers, and sayde thus vnto them: Who hath commaunded you to buylde this house, and to make vp the walles therof? |
| 5:4 | Then tolde we them the names of the men, that made this buyldinge. |
| 5:5 | But the eye of their God came vpon the Elders of the Iewes, that they were not inhibyte, tyll the matter was brought before Darius, and tyll there came a wrytinge therof agayne. |
| 5:6 | This is the summe of the letter yt Thathnai the Debyte on this syde the water, and Sethar of Bosen, and their councellers of Apharsach (which were on this syde the water) sent vnto kynge Darius. |
| 5:7 | And these are the wordes that they sent vnto him: Vnto Darius the kynge, all peace. |
| 5:8 | Be it knowne vnto the kynge, that we came in to Iewry to the house of ye greate God, which is buylded with all maner of stone, and balckes are layed in the walles, and ye worke goeth fast forth, and prospereth in their handes. |
| 5:9 | Neuertheles we axed the Elders and sayde vnto them: Who hath comaunded you to buylde this house, and to make vp the walles therof? |
| 5:10 | We axed their names also, that we might certifye the, and haue wrytten the names of the men that were their rulers. |
| 5:11 | But they answered vs wt these wordes, and sayde: We are the seruautes of the God of heauen and earth, and buylde the house yt was buylded many yeares agoo, which a greate kynge of Israel buylded and set vp. |
| 5:12 | Howbeit whan oure fathers prouoked the God of heauen vnto wrath, he gaue them ouer in the hande of Nabuchodonosor the kynge of Babilon the Caldee, which brake downe this house, & caried ye people awaye vnto Babilon. |
| 5:13 | Neuertheles in the first yeare of Cyrus the kynge of Babilon, ye same kynge Cyrus commaunded to buylde this house of God: |
| 5:14 | for the vessels of golde and siluer in the house of God, which Nabuchodonosor toke out of the temple at Ierusale, and broughte the in to ye temple at Babilon, those dyd Cyrus the kynge take out of ye temple at Babilon, and delyuered them vnto Se?bazer by name, whom he made Debyte, |
| 5:15 | and sayde vnto him: Take these vessels, go thy waye and brynge them vnto the temple at Ierusalem, and let the house of God be buylded in his place. |
| 5:16 | Then came the same Se?bazar, and layed ye foundacion of the house of God at Ierusalem. Sence that tyme hath it bene in buyldinge, and yet is it not fynished. |
| 5:17 | Yf it please ye kynge now, let there be search made in ye kynges treasure house which is at Babilon, whether it haue bene kynge Cyrus commaundement, that the house of God at Ierusalem shulde be buylded: & sende vs ye kynges mynde concernynge the same. |
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.