Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 102:1 | Heare my prayer (o LORDE) and let my criege come vnto the. |
| 102:2 | Hyde not thy face fro me in the tyme of my trouble: enclyne thine eares vnto me when I call, O heare me, and that right soone. |
| 102:3 | For my dayes are consumed awaye like smoke, & my bones are brent vp as it were a fyre brande. |
| 102:4 | My hert is smytte downe and wythered like grasse, so that I forget to eate my bred. |
| 102:5 | For the voyce of my gronynge, my bone wil scarse cleue to my flesh. |
| 102:6 | I am become like a Pellicane in the wildernes, and like an Oule in a broken wall. |
| 102:7 | I wake, and am euen as it were a sparow sittinge alone vpon the house toppe. |
| 102:8 | Myne enemies reuyle me all the daye longe, they laugh me to scorne, and are sworne together against me. |
| 102:9 | I eate ashes with my bred, and mengle my drynke with wepynge. |
| 102:10 | And that because of ye indignacion and wrath, for thou hast taken me vp, and cast me awaye. |
| 102:11 | My dayes are gone like a shadowe, and I am wythered like grasse. |
| 102:12 | But thou (o LORDE) endurest for euer, and thy remembraunce thorow out all generacions. |
| 102:13 | Arise therfore and haue mercy vpon Sion, for it is tyme to haue mercy vpon her, yee the tyme is come. |
| 102:14 | And why? thy seruauntes haue a loue to hir stones, & it pitieth them to se her in the dust. |
| 102:15 | The Heithen shal feare thy name (o LORDE) and all the kynges of the earth thy maiesty. |
| 102:16 | For the LORDE shal buylde vp Sion, and shal apeare in his glory. |
| 102:17 | He turneth him vnto the prayer of the poore destitute, and despyseth not their desyre. |
| 102:18 | This shalbe written for those yt come after, that the people which shalbe borne, maye prayse the LORDE. |
| 102:19 | For He loketh downe from his Sanctuary, out of the heauen doth the LORDE beholde the earth. |
| 102:20 | That he maye heare the mournynges of soch as be in captiuyte, and delyuer the children of death. |
| 102:21 | That they maie preach the name of the LORDE in Sion, and his worshipe at Ierusalem. |
| 102:22 | When the people are gathered together, and the kyngdomes also to serue ye LORDE. |
| 102:23 | He hath brought downe my strength in my iourney, and shortened my dayes. |
| 102:24 | Yet wil I saye: O my God, take me not awaye in ye myddest of myne age: as for thy yeares, they endure thorow out all generacions. |
| 102:25 | Thou LORDE in the begynnynge hast layed ye foundacion of the earth, and the heauens are the workes of thy hondes. |
| 102:26 | They shal perishe, but thou shalt endure: they all shall wexe olde as doth a garment, |
| 102:27 | & as a vesture shalt thou chaunge the, and they shalbe chaunged. But thou art the same, and thy yeares shal not fayle. |
| 102:28 | The children of thy seruauntes shall contynue, & their sede shal prospere in yi sight. |
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.