Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 6:1 | And whan Saneballat, Tobias and Gosem the Arabian, and the other of oure enemyes herde, that I had buylded the wall, and that there were no mo gappes ther in (howbeit at the same tyme had I not hanged the dores vpon the gates) |
| 6:2 | Saneballat and Gosem sent vnto me, sayenge: Come and let us mete together in the vyllages vpon the playne of the cite Ono. Neuertheles they thoughte to do me euell. |
| 6:3 | Notwithstondynge I sent messaungers vnto them, sayenge: I haue a greate busynes to do, I can not come downe. The worke shulde stonde still, yf I were necligent, and came downe to you. |
| 6:4 | Howbeit they sent vnto me as good as foure tymes after the same maner. And I gaue the same answere. |
| 6:5 | Then sent Saneballat his seruaunt vnto me the fifth tyme, with an open letter in his hande, |
| 6:6 | wherin was wrytten: It is tolde the Heythen, & Gosem hath sayde it, that thou and the Iewes thynke to rebell: for ye which cause thou buyldest the wall, and wylt be their kynge in these matters, |
| 6:7 | and hast ordeyned the prophetes to preach of the at Ierusalem, and to saye: He is kynge of Iuda. Now shal this come to the kynges eares: come now therfore, and let us take oure councell together. |
| 6:8 | Neuertheles I sent vnto him, sayenge: There is no soch thinge done as thou sayest: thou hast fayned it out of thine owne hert. |
| 6:9 | For they were all mynded to make us afrayed, and thoughte: They shal withdrawe their handes from the worke, yt they shal not laboure. Howbeit I stregthed my hande the more. |
| 6:10 | And I came vnto ye house of Semaia ye sonne of Delaia the sonne of Mechetabeel, & he had shut him selfe within, & sayde: Let us come together in to ye house of God, eue vnto ye myddes of ye teple, & sparre ye dores of ye teple: for they wyl come to slaye ye, yee eue in the night wyl they come to put the to death. |
| 6:11 | But I sayde: Shulde soch a ma flye? Shulde soch a ma as I am, go in to ye teple, to saue his life? I wyl not go in. |
| 6:12 | For I perceaued, that God had not sent him: Yet spake he prophecye vpon me, neuerthelesse Tobias and Saneballat had hired him for money. |
| 6:13 | Therfore toke he the money, that I shulde be afrayed, and so to do and synne, that they might haue an euell reporte of me, to blaspheme me. |
| 6:14 | My God thynke thou vpon Tobias and Saneballat, acordynge vnto these their workes, and of ye prophet Noadia, and of the other prophetes, yt wolde haue put me in feare. |
| 6:15 | And the wall was fynished on the fyue & twentyeth daye of the moneth Elul, in two and fyftye dayes. |
| 6:16 | And whan all or enemies herde therof, all the Heithen yt were aboute vs, were afraied, and their corage failed the: for they perceaued, that this worke came of God. |
| 6:17 | And at ye same tyme were there many of ye chefe of Iuda, whose letters wete vnto Tobias, & from Tobias vnto them |
| 6:18 | for there were many in Iuda that were sworne vnto him: for he was the sonne in lawe of Sachania the sonne of Arah, and his sonne Iohanan had the doughter of Mesullam the sonne of Barachia, |
| 6:19 | and they spake good of him before me, and tolde him my wordes. And Tobias sent letters, to put me in feare. |
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.