Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 26:1 | Iob answered, and sayde: |
| 26:2 | O how helpest thou the weake? what comforte geuest thou vnto him that hath no stregth? |
| 26:3 | Where is ye coucell yt thou shuldest geue him, which hath no wy?dome? Wilt thou so shewe thine excellent rightuousnes? |
| 26:4 | Before whom hast thou spoken those wordes? Who made the breth to come out of ye mouth? |
| 26:5 | The giauntes & worthies yt are slayne, & lye vnder ye worlde wt their copanions: |
| 26:6 | yee & all they which dwell beneth in the hell are not hyd fro him, & the very destruccion it self ca not be kepte out of his sight. |
| 26:7 | He stretcheth out ye north ouer the emptie, & hageth ye earth vpo nothinge. |
| 26:8 | He byndeth ye water in his cloudes, that they fall not downe together. |
| 26:9 | He holdeth back his stole, that it caa not be sene, and spredeth his cloudes before it. |
| 26:10 | He hath copased the waters wt certayne boundes, vntill the daye & night come to an ende. |
| 26:11 | The very pilers of heaue treble & quake at his reprofe. |
| 26:12 | He stilleth the see with his power, & thorow his wy?dome hath he set forth ye worlde. |
| 26:13 | With his sprete hath he garnished the heaues, & with his hande hath he wounded the rebellious serpet. |
| 26:14 | This is now a shorte summe of his doynges. But who is able sufficiently to rehearce his workes? Who can perceaue and vnderstonde ye thondre of his power? |
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.