Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 77:1 | I cried vnto God with my voyce, yee euen vnto God cried I with my voyce, & he herde me. |
| 77:2 | In the tyme of my trouble I sought the LORDE, I helde vp my hondes vnto him in the night season, for my soule refused all other comforte. |
| 77:3 | When I was in heuynesse, I thought vpo God: whe my hert was vexed, then dyd I speake. |
| 77:4 | Sela. Thou heldest myne eyes wakynge, I was so feble, that I coude not speake, |
| 77:5 | Then remembred I the tymes of olde, & the yeares that were past. |
| 77:6 | I called to remembraunce my songe in the night, I commoned with myne owne herte, and sought out my sprete. |
| 77:7 | Wil the LORDE cast out for euer? Wil he be nomore intreated? |
| 77:8 | Is his mercy cleane gone? Is his promyse come vtterly to an ende for euermore? |
| 77:9 | Hath the LORDE forgotten to be gracious? Or, hath he shut vp his louynge kyndnesse in displeasure? |
| 77:10 | Sela. At the last I came to this poynte, that I thought: O why art thou so foolish? the right honde of the most hyest can chaunge all. |
| 77:11 | Therfore wil I remembre the workes of the LORDE, and call to mynde thy wonders of olde tyme. |
| 77:12 | I wil speake of all thy workes, and my talkynge shalbe of thy doinges. |
| 77:13 | Thy waye (o God) is holy, who is so greate & mightie as God? |
| 77:14 | Thou art the God, that doth wonders, thou hast declared thy power amonge the people. |
| 77:15 | Thou with thine arme hast delyuered thy people, euen the sonnes of Iacob and Ioseph. |
| 77:16 | Sela. The waters sawe ye (o God) ye waters sawe ye, & were afrayed: ye depthes were moued. |
| 77:17 | The thicke cloudes poured out water, ye cloudes thodered, and thy arowes wente abrode. |
| 77:18 | Thy thonder was herde rounde aboute, the lighteninges shone vpon the grounde, the earth was moued and shoke withall. |
| 77:19 | Thy waye was in the see, and thy pathes in the greate waters, yet coude no man knowe thy fotesteppes. |
| 77:20 | Thou leddest thy people like a flocke of shepe, by the honde of Moses and Aaron. |
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.