Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 4:1 | Then answered Eliphas of Theman and sayde vnto him: |
| 4:2 | Yf we begynne to comon with the, peradueture thou wilt be myscontent, but who can witholde himself from speakynge? |
| 4:3 | Beholde, thou hast bene a teacher of many, and hast comforted the weery hondes. |
| 4:4 | Thy wordes haue set vp those that were fallen, thou hast refresshed the weake knees. |
| 4:5 | But now that the plage is come vpon the, thou shreckest awaye: now that it hath touched thyself, thou art faint harted. |
| 4:6 | Where is now thy feare of God, thy stedfastnesse, thy pacience, and the perfectnesse of thy life? |
| 4:7 | Considre (I praye the) who euer peryshed, beynge an innocent? Or, when were the godly destroyed? |
| 4:8 | As for those that plowe wickednesse (as I haue sene myself) and sowe myschefe, they reape ye same. |
| 4:9 | For whe God bloweth vpon them, they perysh, and are destroyed thorow the blast of his wrath. |
| 4:10 | The roaringe of the lyon, the cryenge off the lyonesse, & ye teth off ye lyos whelpes are broke. |
| 4:11 | The greate lyon perysheth, because he ca get no pray and the lyons whelpes are scatred abrode. |
| 4:12 | There is spoken vnto me a thynge in councell, which hath geuen a terrible sounde in myne eare, |
| 4:13 | with a vision in the night, when men are fallen a slepe. |
| 4:14 | Soch feare and drede came vpo me, that all my bones shoke. |
| 4:15 | And when the wynde passed ouer by me, the hayres of my flesh stode vp. |
| 4:16 | Then stode there one before me, whose face I knewe not: an ymage there was, and the wether was still, so that I herde this voyce: |
| 4:17 | Maye a man be iustified before God? Maye there eny man be iudged to be clene, by reason of his owne workes? |
| 4:18 | Beholde, he hath founde vnfaythfulnesse amonge his owne seruauntes, and proude disobedience amonge his angels. |
| 4:19 | How moch more the shal they (that dwell in houses of claye, whose foundacion is but earth) be moth eaten? |
| 4:20 | They shalbe destroyed from the mornynge vnto the euenynge: yee they shall perish, or euer they be awarre: |
| 4:21 | and be taken awaye so clene, that none of the shall remayne, but be deed, or euer they be awarre off it. |
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.