Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 35:1 | Eliu spake morouer, and sayde: |
| 35:2 | Thinkest thou it right that thou sayest: I am rightuous before God |
| 35:3 | Seinge thou sayest so, how doest thou knowe it? What thinge hast thou more excellet, the I yt am a synner? |
| 35:4 | Therfore will I geue answere vnto the & thy frendes: |
| 35:5 | loke vnto the heaue, & beholde it: cosidre ye cloudes, how they are hyer then thou. |
| 35:6 | Yf thou synnest, what dost thou vnto him? Yf thine offences be many, how gettest thou his fauoure? |
| 35:7 | Yf thou be rightuous, what geuest thou him? Or, what receaueth he of thy handes? |
| 35:8 | Of soch an vngodly personne as thou, & of ye sonne of man that is rightuous as thou pretendest to be: |
| 35:9 | there is a greate crie & coplaynte made by the that are oppressed with violence, yee eueryman complayneth vpon the cruell arme of tyrauntes. |
| 35:10 | For soch one neuer sayeth: Where is God that made me? ad yt shyneth vpon vs, that we might prayse him in the night? |
| 35:11 | Which geueth vs more vnderstodinge then he doth the beastes of the earth, and teacheth vs more then the foules off heaue. |
| 35:12 | Yf eny soch complayne, no ma geueth answere, and yt because of the wickednesse off proude tyrauntes. |
| 35:13 | But yf a man call vpon God, doth not he heare him? Doth not the Almightie accepte his crie? |
| 35:14 | Wha thou speakest then, shulde not he pardon the, yff thou open thyself before him, and put thy trust in him? |
| 35:15 | Then vseth he no violence in his wrath nether hath he pleasure in curious and depe inquisicions. |
| 35:16 | Therfore hath Iob opened his mouth but in vayne, ad folishly hath he made so many wordes. |
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.