Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 6:1 | The same night coulde not the kynge slepe, and he commaunded to brynge ye Chronicles and storyes: which wha they were red before ye kinge, |
| 6:2 | they happened on the place where it was wrytte, how Mardocheus had tolde, that the kynges two chaberlaynes (which kepte ye tresholdes) sought to laie hondes on kinge Ahasuerus. |
| 6:3 | And the kynge saide: What worshippe and good haue we done to Mardocheus therfore? Then sayde the kynges seruauntes that mynistred vnto him. There is nothinge done for him. |
| 6:4 | And the kynge sayde: Who is in ye courte? (for Aman was gone in to ye courte without before ye kinges house, yt he might speake vnto ye kinge to hange Mardocheus on ye tre, yt he had prepared for him.) |
| 6:5 | And the kinges seruauntes saide vnto him: Beholde, Ama stodeth in the courte. The kynge saide: Let him come in. |
| 6:6 | And wha Ama came in, ye kinge saide vnto him: What shal be done vnto ye ma, whom the kynge wolde fayne brynge vnto worshippe? But Hama thought in his hert: Whom shulde the kynge els be glad to brynge vnto worshippe, but me? |
| 6:7 | And Aman sayde vnto the kynge: Let the man vnto whom the kynge wolde be glad to do worshippe, be broughte hither, |
| 6:8 | that he maye be araied with the royall garmentes which the kynge vseth to weere: and the horse that the kynge rydeth vpon, and that the crowne royall maye be set vpon his heade. |
| 6:9 | And let this rayment and horse be delyuered vnder the hande of one of the kynges prynces, that he maye araye the man withall (whom the kynge wolde fayne honoure) and cary him vpon the horse thorow the strete of the cite, and cause it to be proclamed before him: Thus shal it be done to euery man, whom the kynge wolde fayne honoure. |
| 6:10 | The kynge sayde: Make haist, and take (as thou hast sayde) the raymet and the horse, and do euen so with Mardocheus ye Iewe that sitteth before the kynges gate, and let nothinge fayle of all that thou hast spoken. |
| 6:11 | Then toke Aman the rayment and the horse, and arayed him, and broughte him on hor?backe thorow the strete of the cite, and proclamed before him: Euen thus shall it be done vnto euery man whom the kynge is disposed to honoure. |
| 6:12 | And Mardocheus came agayne to the kynges gate, but Aman gat him home in all the haist, mournynge with bare heade, |
| 6:13 | and tolde Seres his wyfe and all his frendes, euery thynge that had happened him. Then sayde his wise men and Seres his wyfe vnto him: Yf it be Mardocheus of the sede of the Iewes, before who thou hast begonne to fall, thou canst do nothynge vnto him, but shalt fall before him. |
| 6:14 | Whyle they were yet talkynge with him, came the kynges chamberlaynes, and caused Aman to make haist to come vnto the bancket that Hester had prepared. |
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.