Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 3:1 | After these actes dyd the kynge promote Aman the sonne of Amadathi the Agagite, vnd set him hye, & set his seate aboue all ye prynces that were with him. |
| 3:2 | And all the kynges seruauntes that were in the gate, bowed their knees, and dyd reuerence vnto Aman: for the kinge had so comaunded. But Mardocheus bowed not the knee, and worshipped him not. |
| 3:3 | Then the kynges seruauntes which were in the kynges gate, sayde vnto Mardocheus: Why transgressest thou the kynges commaundement? |
| 3:4 | And whan they spake this daylie vnto him, and he folowed them not, they tolde Aman, that they mighte se whether Mardocheus matters wolde endure: for he had tolde them, yt he was a Iewe. |
| 3:5 | And wha Aman sawe, that Mardocheus bowed not the knee vnto him, ner worshipped him, he was full of indignacion & despyte, |
| 3:6 | that he shulde laye hondes onely on Mardocheus: for they had shewed him ye people of Mardocheus, but he sought to destroye the people of Mardocheus, and all the people that were in the whole empyre of Ahasuerus. |
| 3:7 | In the first moneth that is the moneth Nissan, in ye twolueth yeare of kinge Ahasuerus, was there occasion and oportunyte sought by Aman, from one daye to another, and from the same moneth vnto the twolueth moneth, that is the moneth Adar. |
| 3:8 | And Ama sayde vnto kinge Ahasuerus: There is a people scatered abrode and dispersed amonge all people in all the londes of thine empire, and their lawe is cotrary vnto all people, and they do not after the kynges lawes, nether is it the kinges profit to suffre the after this maner. |
| 3:9 | Yf it please the kynge, let him wryte, that they maye be destroyed, & so wil I weye downe ten thousande talentes of siluer, vnder the handes of the workmen, to be brought in to the kynges chamber. |
| 3:10 | Then toke the kynge his rynge from his hande, and gaue it vnto Aman the sonne of Amadathi the Agagite the Iewes enemie. |
| 3:11 | And the kinge sayde vnto Aman: Let the siluer be geuen the, and that people also, to do withall what pleaseth the. |
| 3:12 | Then were the kynges scrybes called on ye thirtenth daye of the first moneth, & there was wrytten (acordynge as Aman commauded) vnto the kynges prynces, and to the Debites euery where in the londes, and to the captaynes of euery people in the countrees on euery syde, acordynge to the wrytinge of euery nacion, and after their language in the name of kynge Ahasuerus, and sealed with the kynges rynge. |
| 3:13 | And the wrytynges were sent by postes in to all the kynges lodes, to rote out, to kyll, and to destroye all Iewes, both yonge and olde, childre and wemen in one daye (namely vpon the thirtenth daye of the twolueth moneth, which is the moneth Adar) and to spoyle their goodes. |
| 3:14 | This was the summe of the wrytinge, yt there shulde be a commaundement geuen in all londes, to be published vnto all people, yt they shulde be ready agaynst the same daye. |
| 3:15 | And the postes wente in all the haist acordynge to the kynges commaundement. And in the castell of Susan was the comaundement deuysed. And the kynge & Aman sat & dranke. But ye cite of Susan was disquieted. |
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.