Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 1:1 | These are the wordes of the Preacher, the sonne of Dauid, kynge of Ierusalem. |
| 1:2 | All is but vanite (saieth ye preacher) all is but playne vanite. |
| 1:3 | For what els hath a ma, of all the labor yt he taketh vnder the Sonne? |
| 1:4 | One generacio passeth awaye, another commeth, but the earth abydeth still. |
| 1:5 | The Sone aryseth, the Sonne goeth downe, & returneth to his place, yt he maye there ryse vp agayne. |
| 1:6 | The wynde goeth towarde ye South, & fetcheth his copase aboute vnto the North, & so turneth in to himself agayne. |
| 1:7 | All floudes runne in to the see, & yet the see is not fylled: for loke vnto what place the waters runne, thence they come agayne. |
| 1:8 | All thinges are so harde, yt no ma can expresse them. The eye is not satisfied wt sight, the eare is not fylled wt hearinge. |
| 1:9 | The thinge yt hath bene, cometh to passe agayne: & ye thinge yt hath bene done, is done agayne, there is no new thinge vnder the Sonne. |
| 1:10 | Is there eny thinge, wherof it maye be sayde: lo, this is new? For it was loge agoo in the tymes yt haue bene before vs. |
| 1:11 | The thinge yt is past, is out of remebraunce: Eue so the thiges that are for to come, shal no more be thought vpo amoge the that come after. |
| 1:12 | I myself ye Preacher, beynge kynge of Israel & Ierusale, |
| 1:13 | applyed my mynde to seke out & search for the knowlege of all thiges yt are done vnder heaue. Soch trauayle & labor hath God geue vnto ye childre of me, to exercyse the selues theri. |
| 1:14 | Thus I haue considered all the thinges that come to passe vnder the Sone, & lo, they are all but vanite & vexacion of mynde. |
| 1:15 | The croked can not be mayde straight, & the fautes ca not be nobred. |
| 1:16 | I comoned wt myne owne herte, sayege: lo, I am come to a greate estate, and haue gotte more wy?dome, the all they yt haue bene before me in Ierusalem. Yee my hert had greate experiece of wy?dome & knowlege, |
| 1:17 | for there vnto I applyed my mynde: yt I might knowe what were wy?dome & vnderstodinge, what were error & foolishnes. And I perceaued yt this also was but a vexacion of mynde: |
| 1:18 | for where moch wy?dome is, there is also greate trauayle & disquietnes: & ye more knowlege a man hath, the more is his care. |
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.