Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 31:1 | These are the wordes of Kynge Lamuel, & ye lesson yt his mother taught him. |
| 31:2 | My sonne, thou sonne of my body: O my deare beloued sonne, |
| 31:3 | geue not ouer thy substaunce & mynde vnto women, which are the destruccio eue of kynges. |
| 31:4 | O Lamuel, geue kinges no wyne, geue kynges & prynces no stronge drynke: |
| 31:5 | lest they beinge dronken forget the lawe, & regarde not ye cause of the poore, & of all soch as be in aduersite. |
| 31:6 | Geue stronge drynke vnto soch as are condempned to death, & wyne vnto those yt mourne: |
| 31:7 | that they maye drynke it, & forget their misery & aduersite. |
| 31:8 | Be thou an aduocate & stonde in iudgment thyself, to speake for all soch as be dome & sucourles. |
| 31:9 | With yi mouth defende ye thinge yt is laufull and right, and ye cause of ye poore and helplesse. |
| 31:10 | Who so fyndeth an honest faithful woma, she is moch more worth the perles. |
| 31:11 | The herte of hir husbande maye safely trust in her, so that he shal haue no nede of spoyles. |
| 31:12 | She wil do him good & not euel all ye dayes of hir life. |
| 31:13 | She occupieth woll & flax, & laboureth gladly wt hir handes. |
| 31:14 | She is like a marchauntes shippe, that bryngeth hir vytayles from farre. |
| 31:15 | She is vp in ye night season, to prouyde meate for hir housholde, & foode for hir maydens. |
| 31:16 | She considreth lode, & byeth it, and wt the frute of hir handes she planteth a vynyarde. |
| 31:17 | She gyrdeth hir loynes with strength, and courageth hir armes. |
| 31:18 | And yf she perceaue that hir houswifrie doth good, hir candle goeth not out by night. |
| 31:19 | She layeth hir fyngers to the spyndle, & hir hande taketh holde of ye rocke. |
| 31:20 | She openeth hir hande to ye poore, yee she stretcheth forth hir hades to soch as haue nede. |
| 31:21 | She feareth not yt the colde of wynter shal hurte hir house, for all hir housholde folkes are duble clothed. |
| 31:22 | She maketh hir self fayre ornametes, hir clothige is whyte sylke & purple. |
| 31:23 | Hir hu?bade is moch set by in ye gates, whe he sytteth amonge ye rulers of ye londe. |
| 31:24 | She maketh cloth of sylke & selleth it, and delyuereth a gyrdle vnto ye marchaut. |
| 31:25 | Stregth and honoure is hir clothinge, & in the latter daye she shal reioyse. |
| 31:26 | She openeth hir mouth with wy?dome, & in hir toge is the lawe of grace. |
| 31:27 | She loketh wel to the wayes of hir housholde, & eateth not hir bred with ydilnes. |
| 31:28 | Hir children arise & call hir blessed, & hir hu?bande maketh moch of her. |
| 31:29 | Many daughters there be yt gather riches together, but thou goest aboue the all. |
| 31:30 | As for fauor, it is disceatfull, and beutie is a vayne thinge: but a woman that feareth the LORDE, she is worthy to be praysed. |
| 31:31 | Geue her of the frute of hir handes, and let hir owne workes prayse her in the gates. |
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.