Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 12:1 | So Iob answered, and sayde: |
| 12:2 | Then (no doute) ye are the men alone, and wy?dome shal perish with you. |
| 12:3 | But I haue vnderstodinge as well as ye, and am no lesse then ye. Yee who knoweth not these thinges? |
| 12:4 | Thus he that calleth vpo God, and whom God heareth, is mocked of his neghboure: the godly & innocent man is laughed to scorne. |
| 12:5 | Godlynesse is a light despysed in ye hertes of the rich, & is set for them to stomble vpon. |
| 12:6 | The houses of robbers are in wealth and prosperite, & they that maliciously medle agaynst God, dwel without care: yee God geueth all thinges richely with his honde. |
| 12:7 | Axe the catell, & they shal enfourme the: the foules of the ayre, and they shall tell ye: |
| 12:8 | Speake to the earth, and it shall shewe the: Or to the fyshes of the see, and they shal certifie the. |
| 12:9 | What is he, but he knoweth, that ye hode of the LORDE made all these? |
| 12:10 | In whose honde is the soule of euery lyuynge thinge, and the breth of all men. |
| 12:11 | Haue not the eares pleasure in hearinge, and the mouth in tastinge the thinge that it eateth? |
| 12:12 | Amonge olde personnes there is wy?dome, and amonge the aged is vnderstodinge. |
| 12:13 | Yee with God is wy?dome and strength, it is he that hath councell & foreknowlege. |
| 12:14 | Yf he breake downe a thinge, who can set it vp agayne? Yf he shutt a thinge, who wil open it? |
| 12:15 | Beholde, yf he witholde the waters, they drye vp: Yf he let the go, they destroye the earth. |
| 12:16 | With him is strength and wy?dome: he knoweth both the disceauer, and him that is disceaued. |
| 12:17 | He carieth awaye the wyse men, as it were a spoyle, and bryngeth the iudges out of their wyttes. |
| 12:18 | He lowseth the gyrdle of kynges, and gyrdeth their loynes with a bonde. |
| 12:19 | he ledeth awaye the prestes into captiuyte, and turneth the mightie vp syde downe. |
| 12:20 | He taketh the verite from out of the mouth, & disapoynteth ye aged of their wy?dome. |
| 12:21 | He poureth out confucion vpon prynces, and coforteth them that haue bene oppressed. |
| 12:22 | Loke what lyeth hyd in darcknesse, he declareth it opely: and the very shadowe of death bringeth he to light. |
| 12:23 | He both increaseth the people, and destroyeth them: He maketh them to multiplie, and dryueth them awaye. |
| 12:24 | He chaungeth the herte of the prynces and kynges of the earth, and disapoynteth them: so that they go wadringe out of the waye, |
| 12:25 | and grope in the darke without light, stackeringe to and fro like droncken men. |
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.