Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 40:1 | Morouer, God spake vnto Iob and sayde: |
| 40:2 | Can he that stryueth with the Allmightie, be at rest? Shulde not he which disputeth with God, geue him an answere? |
| 40:3 | Iob answered the LORDE, sayenge: |
| 40:4 | Beholde, I am to vyle a personne, to answere the, therfore will I laye my hande vpon my mouth. |
| 40:5 | Once or twyse haue I spoken, but I will saye nomore. |
| 40:6 | Then spake the LORDE vnto Iob out of the storme, and sayde: |
| 40:7 | gyrde vp yi loynes like a man, and tell me the thige that I will axe the. |
| 40:8 | Wilt thou disanulle my iudgment? Or, wilt thou condemne me, yt thou thy self mayest be made rightuous? |
| 40:9 | Is thine arme then like the arme of God? Maketh thy voyce soch a soude as his doth? |
| 40:10 | Then arme thy self with thine owne power, vp, decke the in thy ioly araye, |
| 40:11 | poure out the indignacion of thy wrath: se that thou cast downe all ye proude, |
| 40:12 | loke well, that thou makest all soch as be stubburne, to obeye: treade all the vngodly vnder thy fete, |
| 40:13 | cast the downe in to the myre, and couer their faces with darcknesse: |
| 40:14 | Then will I confesse also, that thyne owne right honde hath saued the. |
| 40:15 | Beholde, the cruell beaste (whom I made wt the) which eateth haye as an oxe: |
| 40:16 | lo, how stronge he is in his loynes, and what power he hath in the nauell of his body. |
| 40:17 | He spredeth out his tale like a Cedre tre, all his vaynes are stiff. |
| 40:18 | His shynnes are like pipes off brasse, his rygge bones are like staues of yro |
| 40:19 | First when God made him, he ordened the wyldernesse for him, |
| 40:20 | yt the mountaynes shulde geue him grasse, where all the beastes off the felde take their pastyme. |
| 40:21 | He lyeth amoge the redes in the Mosses, the fennes |
| 40:22 | hyde him with their shadowe, and the wylowes of the broke couer him rounde aboute. |
| 40:23 | Lo, without eny laboure might he drynke out the whole floude, and suppe off Iordane without eny trauayle. |
| 40:24 | Who darre laye honde vpon him openly, and vndertake to catch him? Or, who darre put an hoke thorow his nose, ad laye a snare for him? |
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.